


To Die So Others Can Live

by rangersandlegends



Series: Borrowing Problems from the Past [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Season 5 AU, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-01-18 01:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 45,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12378213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangersandlegends/pseuds/rangersandlegends
Summary: Sequel to "It's a Hard Love". Ryder finds herself once again travelling to her family's past, this time on a mission to save the world.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! Thank you so much for your support for the first two fics! I took a lot of your feedback into account while writing this, from having longer chapters to even specific plot details. I really appreciate all of your comments, even if they're benign. It helps keep me going. I hope to keep updating this with at least a chapter or two a day. Also, this fic will make little sense without reading the original first.

Sometimes, time travel amazed me. The ability to be some- _ when _ else because of a glitch in the space-time continuum, because of Speed Force, or magic, or a really cool ship. This wasn’t one of those times. It usually wasn’t. This was one of those times where I ignored the pure feel of lightning that engulfed every single one of my senses for the milli-second I was in the time stream. One of those times where I had to ignore the thrill of speeding into eras unknown. Had to cut off my excitement for the adventure of it, and just focus on Don’s arm around my waist, grounding me to him, since there was nothing else to ground me.

 

We emerged in the Bunker. Don made sure I was steady and then let go of me. Only the emergency lights were on, making it seem like no one was there. Just in case, I called out. 

 

“Hello? Is anyone here?” No answer. 

 

Don joined me. “Mr. Queen?” Nothing.

 

I dropped my backpack on the floor, and Don did the same with his. Besides the thumping of the bags, and the humming of computers, there wasn’t much noise. I pulled out my tablet and unfolded it, giving it a moment to connect with the Bunker’s network.  _ May 24, 2017 _ .    
  


“Hey, hon? You got it. May 24.”

 

“Really?” Don asked excitedly as he looked over my shoulder. He pumped his fist in victory. “Any read-out on Frankie?”

 

“Not just yet. You know she could be a few hours or miles off. Hang on.” While Frankie was the speedier of the twins, Don was the more accurate when it came to phasing and Traveling. I pinged Frankie’s watch, trying to see if I could get a hit. “Nothing so far. I’ll need more power to extend the search beyond today in Star City.”

 

“You think she was really that far off the mark?”

 

“She was a bit frazzled in the Pipeline. Don’t worry-either she’ll catch up to us or we’ll catch up to her.” I plugged my tablet into the central console and began uploading the tracking program. Temporal tracking was a bit nasty, and would be time-consuming, especially on these older computers. “There. My tablet will let us know as soon as she’s been found.”

 

“Thanks.” Don came up behind me and rewarded me with a soft kiss on the crown of my head. “Can we put Gideon on it, too?”

 

I sighed. “I wish. But we need to save her processing power for something much more important. But that reminds me. Hey, Gideon?”

 

The disembodied blue AI head popped out of Don’s watch and turned to address me. “Yes, Ms. Queen?”

 

“I don’t know if you can tell, but we’re officially on mission. That means you need to refer to us by our code names at all times.”

 

“Of course, Anna.”

 

“You remember mine, too?” Don asked her.

 

“Yes, Don. Although I’d feel more comfortable to continue calling you Master Allen. I feel so rude.”

 

“The lack of manners is more than made up by for discretion on mission,” Don reminded Gideon. “Okay, that’s all we need for now. Unless you know anything about Frankie?”

 

“I have no leads on the whereabouts of Miss Allen.”

 

I sighed. “That’s Frankie, Gideon.”

 

“Right. No leads on Frankie.”

 

Don pressed a button on his watch. “Thanks, Gideon.” And she dematerialized. “So, where’s the next place we search?”

 

“According to Dad, the next most likely place he’ll be is at City Hall.”

 

“Alright.” He held out his arm for me to step into. “Let’s head out.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

In a whoosh of air, we arrived at City Hall. Or, more specifically, right in Dad’s office. Right in front of Dad eating a sandwich. He looked up at us and dropped his food. 

 

“I didn’t mean take us directly into the mayor’s office,” I whispered to Don. I turned toward my father.

 

“Hi, Dad.” I managed an awkward wave as Don let go of me. 

 

Once he blinked the confusion out of his eyes, Dad picked up his phone and pressed a few buttons. “Tracey? Hold all of my calls and appointments. An old friend has just come to visit and I want to spend some time with her.” He hung up, still staring at me with a look of disbelief. 

 

“It’s really me, Dad.” The biggest smile lit up his face and he came around his desk, scooping me up in a giant hug.

 

“Ryder.” I let him hug me for a while before backing off. “And who’s this?”

 

“Oh, this is...one of my best friends from my time, Don.” It was an understatement of who Don was to me, but we agreed it was for the best to keep things simple for our cover. 

 

Don stuck out his hand for Dad to shake. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Queen.”

 

“Oliver is fine.”

 

“Eh, we’ll agree to disagree.” Don murmured under his breath. No one spoke for a while. It was getting awkward.

 

“You cut your hair.” Dad made the poignant observation.

 

I instinctively brought my hand up to my hair, which was indeed a lot shorter. “Yeah. Several times since we last saw each other.”

 

Dad tilted his head in confusion. “How long has it been for you?”

 

“About the same amount of time it’s been for you. 2 years, give or take.”

 

The awkward moment continued. Dad clearly wanted Don out of the room, and, to be honest, I wouldn’t mind some alone time with my dad. 

 

“Hey, Don, are you hungry from Traveling?” 

 

“Starved.”

 

“That Big Belly Burger on 5th and Main is around in this time period.”

 

He gracefully took the hint. “Great. I’ll go check it out.” And he sped off.

 

Dad let out a giant breath. “Is everything okay? Is Tommy okay? And William and your mother?”

 

“The family’s okay.” It was the biggest possible lie, but it wouldn’t do to have Dad worry unnecessarily about something he couldn’t control.

 

“And your friend, Don, he’s a speedster?”

 

“Yeah, he’s from Team Flash in my future.”

 

“That’s good. For a second, I thought it was you that sped him into my office instead of the other way around.”

 

“Nope, I’m still fully human.” 

 

“So what brings you to 2017? Another evil speedster? Do I screw something up as Mayor?”

 

“No. Nothing like that. I’m here to prevent something terrible from happening.”


	2. Chapter 2

“What happens?” Dad’s face wrinkled in confusion. 

 

“It’s...just know that it’s really bad.”  _ Not a good time to break down, Queen _ . “We tried everything we could to fix it in the future, but it isn’t possible. Only fixing it in this time period is.”

 

“And you can’t tell me anything more about it?”

 

“I’m sorry, but I can’t risk any more damage to the timeline than I’m sustaining already by coming here and preventing the Event.”

 

“The Event? That’s what you call it?” I nodded. “Tell me everything you can tell me, then.”

 

“Around this time period, someone or something starts poisoning the water supply. It’s imperceptible, but it can survive in the human system for...some time. It’s a ticking time bomb. And when it goes off…tick, tick, boom.”

 

“And in the time you’re from?”

 

“It’s already too late to undo the damage. Only coming back here can fix it.”

 

“How many people does it kill?” He looked at me intensely. I knew what he was asking: how many people he loved did it kill?

 

“Enough.”  _ Enough to change everything forever _ . 

 

Dad sat down, dropping his face in his hands, and doesn’t say anything for a while. I sat down in the chair across from him, letting him process.

 

“So you’re saying that it originates somewhere around here and now?”

 

“That’s our best guess.” It had to be. “As Mayor, you can give me access to a lot of what I need, but I’m going to need the whole team on this, especially Curtis and Felicity.”

 

He looked up at me. “You came at a good time. We just put away Adrian Chase.”

 

“Prometheus, I know.” Oliver gave me a confused look for a second, but then shook it off. “There’s also another thing.”

 

“What is that?”

 

“We only have four days to fix this.”

 

“Four days? Why?”

 

“Because in four days’ time, your attention will be occupied by something else.” Namely, the escape of Adrian Chase and the second kidnapping of my older brother. Dad looked like he was about to ask another question, but I cut him off. “You know I can’t tell you what it is. Just trust me.”

 

“I wish I could get Barry’s help as well. I’m sure as a CSI he’d have a lot of information we’ll need. But he’s currently wrapped up with an evil speedster of his own.”

 

“I know. But in a few hours’ time, his whole team will be ready to help us.” Minus Dr. Caitlin Snow, MD. 

 

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Aunt Thea came walking in. She looked like such an adult already, even though I knew there were only a few years separating she and I at this point. 

 

“Thea, I told Tracey I needed some time alone.”

 

“Yeah, and I told her that didn’t include your sister.” She turned toward me. “And who’s this?”

 

“This is...Anna. She’s…” Dad was clearly lost in how to introduce me.

 

“I’m a time traveller from the future Team Arrow here to prevent a catastrophe from happening.” I stuck out my hand. Thea seemed slightly taken aback, but then resigned herself to it. 

 

“I guess this is our lives now,” she said as she shook my hand. 

 

“I know you’re technically retired at the moment, but I would love for you to join the team I’m putting together.” 

 

“Wait, I recognize you. Weren’t you one of Roy’s friends?”

 

Dad gave me another confused look and I just nodded. “That was what I said last time I was here, before you knew his secret. But there’s no time for secrecy now. Will you join us?”

 

“I don’t know…”

 

Oliver pleaded with his sister. “Come on, Thea, you joined us for the aliens. This is just as exciting as all that.”

 

She sighed. “Fine. Yeah, I guess I’ll come to.”

 

“Great.” I turned to Dad. “What are the chances you can cancel the rest of your day?” 

 

Dad turned to Thea, who rolled her eyes. “Fine. Everyone still loves me around here, so I’ll start doing your cancellations and meet you at the Bunker.”

 

I quickly texted Don to meet us at the Bunker in 15. “Great. Then let’s get started.”


	3. Chapter 3

Dad took me and Aunt Thea back to the Bunker. As we rode down the secret elevator, I tried to calm myself. I knew who was down there; Dad from the future had lectured me on the abilities and personalities of everyone on the team in this time period. There would be no surprises. But nothing could prepare me for actually having to see all of them. I must’ve been shaking, because Dad put his hand on his shoulder to calm me down. Aunt Thea gave a questioning look out of the corner of her eye but ultimately ignored it. Then, before I was ready, the doors opened. 

 

Dad had called the whole team in, and there they all were. Hanging out, making small talk, waiting for us. I walked out of the elevator and tried to slow my breathing. I wished Don were here. I desperately needed something to ground me now. My eyes flitted across the various faces of the team: Dinah, the current Black Canary; Rene, known as Wild Dog; Quentin, their connection to the city’s police force; Dig, a man who was like a second father to me; Curtis, the inventor whose life I had already messed with, and next to him-

 

Mom. 

 

Mom was just sitting there, typing away at her computer. She didn’t even see that I was there. She didn’t care that I had just walked into the room. I felt myself tearing up, so I quickly redirected my thoughts to something else, anything else. Dad didn’t notice my reaction, and, if he did, he didn’t make any mention of it.

 

“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to someone.” Everyone’s heads shot up and looked at Oliver. “This is Anna. She’s on our team in the future, and she’s here now with a new mission for us.”

 

“Anna, I knew it was you.” My mom came up to me. “I mean, between the bags with your gear in it and the temporal tracing program you were running on my computers, I figured you had to be back.” She gave me a hug. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe. I moved my arms up to hug her back, but, before I could, the hug was over. As she moved away from me, the scent of her perfume lingered in the space between us. A perfume I kept in the back of a drawer, unwilling to look at or smell again. 

 

“Wait, I know you.” Curtis pointed a finger at me.  _ Uh-oh _ . “You’re the thief that stole my battery!” 

 

Mom and Dad turned to me and gave me a funny look. Curtis stormed up to me. “It took me weeks to remake that prototype.”

 

“Sorry. I needed it for reasons you couldn’t understand.” I glanced at Mom, who was clearly easily walking again. “And it didn’t seem to slow you down too much. You still made the implantable biostimulant.” 

 

Curtis crossed his arms. “Still, it caused me a lot of extra work,” he murmured. Mom put her hand on his shoulder. 

 

“And it all worked out. Now, we need to figure out why Anna is here now?” She looked at me, expecting me to give her all the answers like last time. Before I could respond, Rene jumped in.

 

“So we’re expected to believe Little Blondie that she’s one of us in the future? And we just believe her?”

 

“You’re expected to believe me, yes. We went on missions with her before and she’s trustworthy,” Dad responded.

 

“Yeah, and my name’s not Little Blondie, either.”

 

Mom turned to me again. “I see you brought two bags. So I’m guessing you brought a friend as well?”

 

“Yeah, and he should be here any-” Before I could finish my sentence, there was a whoosh of air and Don came into sight. “And here he is now. This is my friend Don. He’s a member of future Team Flash.” Don held up his hand in greeting. 

 

I still mustn’t have had my full composure, because Don gave me a questioning look, and tried grabbing my hand out of instinct. I did my best to discreetly pull it away. Keep things simple. 

 

“I’ll introduce you two to everyone, and then you can fill us in,” Dad said.

 

“Actually, we already know everyone. We came into this fully prepared.” I walked to the central console, and plugged in my tablet again, pulling up all of the info I had to show them. “Here’s what you need to know. In the next several days, the water supply is going to be contaminated by an unknown agent. This agent is imperceptible to modern infrastructure, both in the water and in the human body. However, the agent stays within the human body and multiplies until it reaches lethal levels. It’s called the Lethality Point, or LP. It seems to originate in Central and Star City, which share a water supply. Our task is to determine when and where the LP is going to be introduced into the water supply, stop it, and destroy the chemical. Got it?”

 

I turned to face my audience, and was met by blank stares and Don’s best supportive face. Quentin was the first to speak. “So you’re saying there’s going to be some kind of mass extinction event in the next couple decades? And we have to stop it?”

 

“Preferably...yeah.”  _ Nice, Don _ . 

 

Mom slide in next to me in the other wheely chair. “Okay, so this is the chemical structure of LP?” 

 

I scooched a bit further away from Mom before responding. “Yeah. This is what it looks like in the human body. But we need to reverse engineer what the structure would be before it hit the water stream.”

 

“Whoa.” Curtis was apparently freaking out. “We’re computer scientists. We can do a little forensics, but nothing at this level. You’d need a chemist.” 

 

“Exactly. And we’re going to get one, tonight. But, in the meantime we need to hit all five water treatment plants in Star City and the five in Central to make sure they’re running properly and aren’t at risk for accidental contamination.”

 

Dinah finally piped in. “So you don’t know if this was accidental or purposeful?”

 

“No. Until I reverse engineer the chemical, I can’t even tell you if the LP is naturally occurring.”

 

“But you’re from the future, right?” Aunt Thea asked.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Then why didn’t you do this work in the future and bring back the assessment? This seems like a waste of time.” She wasn’t wrong. I didn’t have a good response.

 

Don responded instead. “Because we lacked the resources in the future to do it.” If by resources, he meant human resources, he wasn’t wrong. 

 

“I thought you said the future tech was better at detecting LP?” Dad asked.

 

I sighed. “It is. But we couldn’t do the backtrace, because...just trust me.” Time for a change of subject. “The plan for right now is to check the water treatment plants. I have devices to test the water, we just need someone to attach them.”

 

“And how are we supposed to get in?” Dig finally asking the right questions.

 

“I can do that.” Don answered. “I’ll speed you in, you guys can attach the devices, and wait for the results to come back.”

 

“Because you’re fast, like the Flash.” Okay, now Dig seemed to be slowing down a bit on asking the right questions.

 

“You got it. Team Flash for the win.” I laughed at Don’s use of the outdated expression, but no one else thought it was odd. Only Don could cheer me up at a time like this.

 

“Well, it sounds like you have a well thought-out plan. Everyone suit up.” Dad commanded.


	4. Chapter 4

As everyone cleared out to grab their gear, Mom held me back. I tried not to wince at her touch, but was fairly certain I failed. 

 

“Hey, Anna, the computer just finished that temporal trace.” 

 

Don must’ve overheard, because he came back to look over Mom’s shoulder. “Did you find her?”

 

“If by her, you mean the beacon you were looking for, then no. Of course, these computers aren’t really meant to scan fourth dimensionally. If you have other tech you could use, then that would be better.”

 

Don gave me a pleading look, and I wanted to. Of course I wanted to use Gideon to find Frankie.

 

“At this point, let’s assume that she either turned her tracer off or it got broken. In the meantime, we need to focus on finding these water treatment plants and running the results through future tech.”

 

Don looked so disappointed, but he had to know that what I was doing was for the best. Finding his sister was not, and could not be, our top priority, no matter our personal sentiments. I wished I could give poor Don a hug, but there were too many people around. I nodded at him and we went to go grab our gear and change into it. 

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

After everyone was suited up, we gathered back at the central console, and I doled out the assignments for everyone, and explained how to use the water sensors before handing them out. Once I was sure everyone understood, I had Don start speeding people to the correct places. I had asked him to save me for last so I could monitor everything over the comms and made sure it all went right. People sounded like they knew what they were doing, with Rene even chiming in that he didn’t need me looking over his shoulder so often. I could deal with not being called “Little Blondie”, but I put up with it. Finally, I got sped off to my destination in Central City.

 

I landed in the bowels of the water treatment plant, and quickly began my work of attaching the water sensor.

 

“Hey.” I turned and saw Don was still there.

 

“Hey yourself. Don’t you have a water treatment plant of your own to get to?”

 

“I just wanted to check in on you. How was it seeing your mom?” 

 

“We’ll have plenty of time for that when all of this is over and done with. For now, we have to focus.”

 

Something unreadable passed across his face. “Right. Good luck.” And he sped off.

 

I didn’t know what his deal was. We had both agreed that it was best not to bring our feelings into this mission. It was fine when we were just chasing down gang-bangers on the streets or Rogues in Central, but this was the most important mission we would probably ever be on. There was no time to be fooling around. I turned my attention to the water sensor again. We had gone over how to use them so many times that I could do the procedure with my eyes closed. I set it up and then sat back on my heels to wait fifteen minutes I needed to finish the procedure. The comms were silent, so I assumed everyone else was sitting around waiting as well. I let my mind drift.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact day that I had met Don and Frankie. They were a few months older than me, so I just assumed they had been brought to Star City around the time I was born to meet me. We had a ton of playdates, since it was so easy for the speedster family to get to Star City. Frankie and I had hit it off like real sisters, especially considering how different we were. Frankie always wanted to play with princess stuff, and watch Disney movies. I preferred lightsaber fights, as realistic as possible. We compromised by having me be her knight-in-shining-armor, always off to rescue her. Don was just an annoying third wheel. He preferred making science experiments out in the backyard, usually experimenting on us. Now I understood that he just wanted to be part of our friendship, but could never quite figure out how.

 

Don came into his own as a superhero much faster than Frankie did. He was much more accepting of his speedster genes. Even though Frankie, as the older of the two, went into the Speed Force first, he had a basic understanding of his duties even before then. I still remembered our first mission together. Mom and Dad were at the hospital, so John was running point. Frankie was supposed to come with us but had refused to go, citing she had too much homework or something. No surprise, considering how often Frankie would shirk her duties when she was younger. So it was up to myself and Don to capture the Rogue on the loose in Star City, under John’s supervision.

 

John and I were used to working with each on missions; we had been best friends forever and partners for a while. Ironically enough, the speedster had a hard time keeping up with us. Eventually, he gave in.

 

“Guys, you have to tell me what’s going on instead of communicating in cryptic hand gestures like that.”

 

I found myself rolling my eyes. If the newbie couldn’t keep up in the field, then who were we to help him? We weren’t here to play babysitter; this was a real mission, with real stakes. 

 

“Look, if you don’t think you can keep up, go back and wait for us at the Bunker.”

 

“But you’re going to need my speed to catch her!”

 

“Right now, all you’re doing is slowing us down.” John was right. This wasn’t amateur hour. I couldn’t see the look on Don’s face because of his cowl, but his shoulders immediately slumped. He sped off toward the Bunker, and I honestly was glad. At least Frankie admitted to herself that she wasn’t cut out for the field, not yet.

 

After another couple minutes of tracking, John broke the silence. “You don’t think we were too harsh on him, do you?”

 

“No. If he wanted to be here, he would’ve stood up for himself. He would’ve stayed.”

 

Suddenly, I felt a severe pain in my head, and the last thing I saw was a blinding light, before I blacked out completely. 

 

When I came to, Don was shaking me awake. “Ryder, Ryder, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Where’s Dr. Light?”

 

“I heard calls for back-up over the comms and came to take her out.” Don started backing away.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to slow you down anymore.”

 

I couldn’t help it. I felt a smile lighting my face for the first time in a long time.

 

\----------------------------------------------------

 

“Uhh, guys, there are some not-so-nice looking guys coming at me.” Mom’s voice came in over the comm, breaking me off from my memory.

 

“Felicity, stay calm,” my dad instructed her. 

 

“Don, go get Felicity from her location, immediately!” I called out.

 

“Copy!”

 

There was complete silence for a full minute as we all waited to see if Mom was alright. If something happened to her….

 

Finally, her voice came over the comms. “Guys, I’m fine. Don took me back to the Bunker.”

 

I let out my breath. “Is anyone not done collecting their data?” Silence. “Don, start gathering everyone from their locations. We’ll go over this data back at the Bunker.” And I’d figure out who was trying to intimidate Mom. 


	5. Chapter 5

I was the last one Don brought back to the bunker. Dad was already talking to Mom about the guys back at the water treatment facility. 

 

“Did they say anything?” Dad asked.

 

“Yeah. They asked me what I was doing down there, and when I said I was with the city inspection team, they said they weren’t scheduled for an inspection and started stalking up to me.”

 

“Where they wearing uniforms?” I asked.

 

“No. Just t-shirts and jeans. They didn’t match or anything.”

 

“Sounds like something we’ll want to investigate further.” This could be something. It was at least the most interesting event that had happened so far. I turned to Don. “Gideon?”

 

Her head popped out of his watch again. “Yes, Anna?” There were cries of surprise from the team. 

 

Don grinned. “Guys, this is Gideon. She’s an AI from my time. We’re going to use her to sort through the data we gathered.”

 

Mom’s face lit up. “I know her! She’s the AI on the Waverider.”

 

I grimaced. “Yes and no.” Mom frowned. I didn’t really have time to explain the fourth dimensional difference, so I turned to Gideon. “Gideon, we uploaded all the data from the water treatment plants. Can you go through it and see if you can find any abnormalities?”

 

“Of course, Anna. I’ll get right on it.” She dematerialized, and I nodded in satisfaction. 

 

“Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?” my dad asked. 

 

“I’d like to take a small team back to the water treatment facility that Felicity was at, and see if those guys are still there or if we can figure anything out about their intentions.” 

 

“Alright. Who do you want on the recon team?” Dad was putting me in charge? It made sense, of course, and I had more or less been in charge since I had been here. But picking my own team was a stark reminder that Dad was truly not leading any aspect this mission.

 

“Me, you, and Don.” Keep it as small as possible. “Everyone else stay ready, in case we need back-up.” The others nodded. 

 

Dad turned to Don. “You ready?”

 

“Always.” He grabbed me and Dad, and off we ran.

 

Before we knew it, we were at the water treatment plant, hidden in the shadows behind some piping. There were three men in our field of vision, and they were playing with the water sensor that Mom had installed. It didn’t look like they had managed to take it off of the pipe it was on.  _ Good _ . We had made sure those things could survive anything short of a nuclear blast.

 

“ _What did the little blonde one put on this pipe?_ ” I turned toward Dad. _Russians_. Mom hadn’t mentioned anything about Russians. We exchanged a look and then leaned forward to see if we could hear more of what they were saying. 

 

“ _ Whatever it is, it won’t come off _ ,” said the second one. 

 

“ _ Should we tell the boss about this? _ ” asked the third.

 

“ _ No, we did our job. The little blonde one is none of our business _ ,” replied the second one, who seemed to be the leader. Made sense, considering he was the largest. The others nodded and walked off toward the exit. Once we were sure they were gone, I turned to Dad.

 

“Bratva. Do you recognize them?”

 

He shook his head. “No. They were saying that they had been hired to do a job and-”

 

“I heard what they were saying just fine.”

 

“You speak Russian?”

 

I nodded. “Read and write, too.” Dad looked impressed. He shouldn’t be. I had learned most of it from him, and then had taken up the language in my homeschooling. Much easier than Mandarin. 

 

Dad turned to Don. “Are we in Central or Star City?”

 

“Central.”

 

“Hmm. I haven’t had any dealings with the Central City Bratva.”

 

“Meaning they don’t have you blacklisted?” I asked. While Dad’s dealings with the Star City Bratva and the original Russian branch were part of our briefing for this mission, I had no memory of Dad ever dealing with the branch in Central. 

 

“Let’s hope not. My name should carry some influence here. Just in case, though, I’ll go in alone.”

 

I stepped toward him. “Yeah, that’s not happening. I can negotiate with the Bratva just as easily as you can. We’ll go in together, with Don as a lookout.” Don nodded. He knew that dealing with the Russian mob wasn’t his strength. 

 

“If you think you can handle it, fine. Do you know where they work out of?”

 

“Yeah. I’ve had some...dealings with them before.” I had more than a few misgivings. I knew Dad and I would do just fine, but I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to use my ace in the hole. Things could get...dicey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't be updating for the next week, but I promise I will make it up to you when new chapters return!


	6. Chapter 6

I had Don run back to the Bunker and get us some civilian clothes. It wouldn’t do to expose our identities as vigilantes to the Bratva, although I had a suspicion that Dad’s as Green Arrow was probably already compromised. Then I told Don where to take us. Once we were outside of the correct abandoned warehouse, I turned to him. 

 

“Stay safe, alright?”

 

“Hey, it should be me saying that to you.”

 

“You’d only be slowing me down.” He chuckled, and I lightly punched his shoulder before jogging off to join my dad at the entrance to the warehouse. 

 

“Don cased the place out and figures there are 8 guys in there, as well as plenty of munitions.”

 

He nodded. “Remember, confidence is key. We don’t break.” He tilted his head at me. “And I guess I don’t need to remind you of that.”

 

I laughed humorlessly.  _ No, he didn’t _ . “Let’s go.”

 

We strode into the warehouse, immediately gathering the attention of everyone in there. A few of them stepped up, looking pretty threatening. Well, threatening to a civilian. 

 

One of them spoke up. “This is private property, my friends.” He made a dismissive gesture, but we held our ground against who I presumed was the captain. Dad spoke first.

 

“ _ We’re here to speak to your captain. _ ” 

 

“ _ Captain of what, comrade? _ ”

 

“ _ Bratva _ .” The men exchanged looks before someone from the back stepped forward. He looked vaguely familiar, but I didn’t put any further thought into it. After a while, all Russian thugs look alike.

 

“ _ I am the captain here _ .”

 

“ _ Can we go speak somewhere in private? _ ”

 

“ _ And what about the girl? _ ” Dad glanced at me like I was barely a passing thought. 

 

“ _ She is my associate. You clearly have nothing to fear from her _ .” The captain made a gesture for us to follow, and he took us to a small office inside the warehouse. He closed the blinds on the windows leading to the interior of the warehouse and offered his hand to Dad.

 

“I am Mikhail. I am Bratva captain. Excuse me if I do not understand, but who are you to Bratva?”

 

“I’m a captain as well. My name is Oliver Queen.”

 

“Oliver Queen, a Bratva captain?” He seemed to consider it, then he pointed his finger at him in a knowing gesture. “Ah, yes, I have heard of this. Mayor of big city, but actually Bratva. Bratva operates freely in city because of you, yes?”

 

Dad looked uncomfortable, but nodded regardless. Not a great thing to be admitting, but necessary. “I was hoping you could provide me with some information.”

 

“For you, brother, of course.”

 

“Were you hired for a job at a water treatment facility?”

 

“Water treatment? Yes, I sent three of my men there today.”

 

“What did you send them to do?”

 

“They were to break in and, how do you say, _contaminate_ _water_?” Even with his lapse into Russian, it was clear what he meant. The men had been sent to poison the water supply. This was exactly the lead that we needed! 

 

“Did they do it?” I asked. 

 

“Nyet. Someone had already tampered with the water. We will report this.”

 

“Report it to who?” I asked.

 

“I will keep that information to myself, girl.”  _ No! I had to know. _ “I have shared what I have out of respect for my brother. But you cannot give me orders.” He wasn’t wrong. Both he and Dad were captains. Dad had no authority over this man. But the Bratva always had a way of resolving disputes between brothers.

 

I stepped up. “I challenge you to a duel for that information.”

 

“Psssh. Do not insult me, girl, or you will pay.”

 

“I am not insulting you.” I stepped out of the office a bit to gather the attention of the other Bratva in the warehouse. “ _ I challenge you, Captain Mikhail, to a duel _ .”

 

“ _ And what gives you that right? _ ”

 

I lowered the neckline of my shirt, pulling it back enough to show my tattoo. “ _ I am Bratva _ .”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Once everyone got over their collective disbelief, Dad took me a few steps away from the gawking crowd, into a corner. “What are you doing, Ryder?”

 

“We need this information, and this is the only way to get it.”

 

“How are you Bratva?”

 

“That’s a story for another time. For now, just trust me.”

 

“I’ll fight instead.” 

 

“Bratva fight shirtless. They’d see you don’t have a tattoo.”

 

“Better that than try to believe a teenaged American girl is Bratva!”

 

It didn’t matter. The men were starting a small riot. Their captain had been insulted, and they wanted him to get revenge. On me. It was a fight I could win, no problem. I didn’t see why Dad was so worried about it. 

 

“He’ll kill you if you lose.”

 

“Lucky for him, I’m a bit more merciful.” I turned to face my new opponent, who was already rearing from the energy of his men.

 

“ _ Are you ready? Or do you need time to gather your courage? _ ”

 

“ _ I will take you on, little girl _ .” 

 

I stepped up to take on Mikhail, and his men automatically formed a circle around us, cheering for their captain. He removed his shirt, and I did, too, to the apparently approval of all the men surrounding us, if their hoots and hollers were any indication. I decided to let him make the first move, see if I could size him up. He started with an obvious feint, and I was able to avoid his real attack. I let him continue his rather lame attempt to get a hit on me, letting him expend his energy as much as possible. Finally, he seemed to let up and I made my move. Faster than he expected me, I took two jabs to his gut and an uppercut to his head. He stumbled back, letting me get close enough to try to get behind him to get a chokehold. But his hand came up to his my head and suddenly there was extreme pain in my head. 

 

I grabbed his right wrist and squeezed, causing him to drop whatever had been in his closed fist. Two steel balls.  _ Cheater _ . It didn’t really matter in the end, as now I was able to get behind him fully and put him in a chokehold. 

 

“ _ Yield. _ ”

 

“ _ No _ .” 

 

I tightened my hold. “ _ Yield _ .”

 

“ _ I yield, I yield. _ ” 

 

I let go. “ _ By the Bratva code, you will give me what I ask. _ ”

 

“Da. The man who hired me called from this phone number.” He pulled out a small piece of paper and handed it to me. I didn’t immediately recognize the area code, but I believed the captain. Without saying another word, I bent down and grabbed my shirt and walked out of the warehouse with my head held high. My dad followed me. 

 

Once we got a decent distance away from the warehouse, Don came speeding up to us. 

 

“That was a great fight, Rye.” I smiled at the use of his nickname for me. “You can probably put your shirt back on, not that I’m complaining….” 

 

Dad shot Don a furious glare, and Don meekly put his head down.  _ Typical _ . I shrugged my shirt back on. 

 

“We got a phone number that Felicity should be able to trace. You ready to take us back to the Bunker?” It may have been a question, but Dad phrased it like an order. 

 

Don wrapped his hands around our waists, and off we went. Finally, with a real lead.


	7. Chapter 7

We arrived back in the Bunker in a flash, and I stepped out of Don’s hold as soon as I caught my balance. Don, however, was still staggering. I put my hand on his shoulder and waited until he was able to make eye contact with me. After what felt like an eternity, he looked down at me and nodded.

 

“Is he okay?” Mom asked.

 

“Yeah, let me just-” I found Don’s bag and grabbed one of his specially formatted energy bars. I opened it and held it out for him. He grabbed it gratefully and wolfed it down quickly.

 

I quietly asked him, “Why didn’t you tell me it was too much?”

 

“It wasn’t. I’ll just take a break now.”

 

I rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. You’re doing a job meant for two speedsters.” He headed off to where the cots were, and I turned back to the problem at hand. 

 

“So, what intel were you able to get from the Bratva?” asked Dinah. 

 

“Not much.” I grimaced. “Just this phone number, which I hope we’re able to backtrace.”

 

“Give it here.” Mom held out her hand. I gave her the phone number. She typed it into a search algorithm and let the computers do their thing. Within seconds, she had a match. “It’s a burner phone.”

 

“Can you track it?”

 

“It’s basically untraceable, but that isn’t going to stop me.” A few more keystrokes. “It’s in Central City, at this address.” I didn’t recognize the location immediately, but I was less familiar with Central than I was with my own city. The team was looking at me, waiting for my orders. 

 

“We’ll go check out the address in a bit, after Don has gotten some rest. Besides, we need to go to Central tonight anyway. Everyone go home and get some rest; be ready in case I need you tomorrow.” 

 

The team nodded and started heading out. I went to go check on Don. I found him in the back of the Bunker, talking to Gideon. I leaned on a support beam just out of earshot, so I could let them finish their conversation in privacy. It’s not like Gideon and Don kept secrets from me, but I knew speedsters and their AIs had certain information about timelines that humans probably shouldn’t know. As I watched their interaction, I let my mind wander again.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Don’s and my first date was unconventional, to say the least. It was barely even a date. We had agreed to go mini-golfing on some Saturday afternoon, when all the little kids were out and about. When he texted to ask if I wanted to go, I had assumed he meant me, him, and Frankie. After all, Don and I never did anything just the two of us. Imagine my surprise when I got to the course and found that only Don was waiting for me. 

 

“Where’s Frankie?”

 

“Frankie? This is just me and you.”

 

“Oh. Okay.” I was confused, but I went along with it. Maybe Don had some concerns about Frankie he wanted to tell me. Things got weirder when Don insisted he pay for both of our passes, but it’s not like the Allens had never paid for things for me before. We played the first few holes pretty quickly, with me beating him solidly already. When we got to the fourth hole, we were behind a rather large family who were taking their time. Don sat down on a bench, but it seemed too small for me to sit down next to him, so I stayed standing.

 

“What do you say we make things a little interesting?” I asked.

 

He arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

 

“Loser buys the winner something from the arcade.”

 

“Oh, c’mon. You’re already winning by a lot.”

 

“Like you didn’t know that would happen? Face it, your meta genes are no match for pure skill.” 

 

Don smirked. “Fine, you’re on.” We shook on it, and, if I wasn’t imagining it, Don held the handshake slightly longer than he needed to. 

 

“Don’t slow me down.” I turned on my heels and started at the next hole. I ended up smoking Don by twenty-three strokes for the course. We got back to the main building and I had to decide what I wanted Don to buy me from the arcade. I wanted to choose the most embarrassing item available. I bypassed the yo-yos, slinkies, and hats. That’s when I found it.

 

“I want that,” I said.

 

“As you wish, ma’am.”

 

“And I’d like you to carry it out of here for me.” He looked at me like I was crazy, but I just shrugged. “I won by a lot. Seems only fair.” 

 

He huffed, but complied. To this day, I still don’t know how much that giant stuffed pink bear cost, but I know that Don bought it for me, and carried it out of the building with as much pride as he probably had. I asked him to speed me and my prize back to the Bunker, where I was meeting up with the team to get my assignment for the night. 

 

When we got back, it was just Mom and Dad getting ready for the night’s activities, with Tommy in his corner playing. My parents turned when they felt us enter the Bunker. Dad had an unreadable expression on his face, but Mom’s look was one of pure joy.

 

“How cute! A member of Team Arrow and a member of Team Flash dating!”

 

“Dating?” Dad and I exclaimed at the same time. And that was how my entire family, myself included, discovered that I was dating Don. And I haven’t looked back since.

 

\-------------------------------------------------

 

Standing there, watching Don, I was reminded of all of the reasons I never stopped dating him. He didn’t mind my competitive side, which was good for him, and I enjoyed how quietly brave he was. He wasn’t one to take credit for anything he did, but I knew how much he had done to save the world and the timeline. I wonder how much it hurt him to be messing with it. 

 

Don shut off Gideon, and I went to sit next to him.

 

“What did Gideon have to say?” 

 

“She finished analyzing the water at the treatment facilities. No contamination that she could detect.”

 

“Good. That matches with what the Bratva said. We’re going to catch this guy.” Don looked less than sure, so I bumped my shoulder against his. “How are you feeling, champ?”

 

“I still need some rest before we go on our next mission. Any idea of what’s next?”

 

“We have to check out this phone number in Central, then it’s off to STAR Labs to get your dad on this LP reverse engineering.”

 

“Right.”

 

“Hey, remember our first date?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I get why you couldn’t rack up the courage to tell me it was a date, but how did you get the courage to even ask me out?”

 

He chuckles softly. I bump my shoulder against his again, trying to get him to open up. “I think you greatly underestimated how much I liked you back then.”

 

I mocked being offended. “Back then? So I’m to take it you don’t like me much now?” 

 

“Ha ha. I was just a seventeen-year-old guy who thought his sister’s friend was too pretty not to ask out. But believe me, it took me hours to format that text.”

 

“If I remember right, the text just said ‘Hey u wanna go minigolfing?’ and then maybe a smiley face.”

 

“Yes! And I sweat through two t-shirts coming up with it!”

 

“You’re such a nerd.”

 

“Yeah, but you love me.”

 

“Yeah, I kinda do.”

 

“Hey, I hate to interrupt, but I ordered food, if you want some, Anna or Don?” And there was my mom.

 

I turned toward Don. We exchanged a look.  _ How much had she heard?  _ Don jumped in. “I just had one of my energy bars, so I think I’ll just take a bit of a nap.”

 

“Anna?”

 

“Sure, I’ll join you.” I got up, and, once I was sure Mom was out of sight, blew Don a kiss.

 

I joined Mom at the conference table in the corner of the Bunker. She had ordered some Big Belly Burger.

 

“Oliver had to run to City Hall to take care of some business that Thea said just couldn’t wait. So it’ll just be you and me.”  _ No. I couldn’t do this. _ I considered going to get Don to act as some sort of buffer, but that would just put us further off-schedule. I guess I’d have to power through.  _ Here goes nothing _ .


	8. Chapter 8

It looked like Mom had remembered my Big Belly order from two years ago. I started tearing up at the thought, but I pushed it down again. I just needed to eat this food as fast as possible, and then...well I knew what I needed to do after I ate.

 

“So, this thing that happens in the future, this Event or whatever, you’re here to stop it?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“So you’re here to purposefully change the timeline?”

 

I sighed. “Yes, that’s the plan.”

 

“Why? I mean, last time you were here, you were doing everything possible not to change the timeline, but here you are, admitting that you’re going to change it.” Why indeed.

 

“Last time I Traveled, I wasn’t sure of what the implications of anything I would do would be. Luckily, there weren’t too many ramifications. This time, though, I came prepared.”

 

“Even a well thought-out time travel mission can have unintended consequences.” She knew that from experience, as well.

 

“I know.”  _ But anything is better than the future I’m from _ . “But that’s a risk we were willing to take. All of us.”

 

“And me? Did I have any say in all of this?”  _ We chose for you. _

 

“Everyone had a say. This was the decision.” Mom must’ve heard the finality in my voice, because she let it go. We were able to finish the rest of the food in silence, which was preferable to me. 

 

Once I had finished, I excused myself to the bathroom. I grabbed another device out of my bag on the way. I closed the door behind me, leaning up against it, and felt my legs unable to support my weight as I slumped down. I couldn’t help the silent tears from flowing. I had known this was going to happen. But there was knowing something in theory, and then there was experiencing it in practice. And that hurt a lot more. Seeing her walking was the easy part; I had dealt with that back in 2015. But seeing her like this? It hurt so badly. What I wouldn’t give to just reach out and hug her once last time, to tell her I loved her.  _ You signed up for this mission _ , I reminded myself.

 

Speaking of, I needed to check my vitals. I pricked myself with the testing needle, and waited for the meter to read the results of the blood test. 99.87%. Good enough for now. I tucked the meter back in my pocket, wiped the tears off my face, and checked myself in the mirror. When did I get to look so old? I didn’t remember looking like this even a year ago. After deciding that my face had sufficiently decreased in redness, I went back out to the main section of the Bunker. Dad was there, talking with Felicity and probably waiting for me. 

 

Dad gave me a questioning look, and I decided to speak before he could ask me what was wrong. “Don’s probably ready by now. Let’s suit up and get back to Central City.”

 

\--------------------------------------------------------

 

Don sped us to a run-down apartment building. We appeared to be on the East Side, which was to Central what the Glades were to Star City. 

 

“Overwatch, can you get as a more exact location on the cellular signal?”

 

“Sorry, Anna, this is the best I can do. We really need to get you a code name.” 

 

“Anna’s fine.” I pulled out my tablet, and checked to see if I could get the signal myself. “Overwatch, I’m not detecting any cellular signals originating from this location.”

 

“Trust me, it’s in there.” Of course I trusted Mom. Even with tech twenty years older than mine, she could find the source better than I could. 

 

I turned to Don. “Stay outside and keep watch. Stay on comms.” He nodded.

 

“Green Arrow, let’s search floor by floor. You take the odd floors, I’ll take the even floors. Call in if you see anything remotely suspicious.” Dad ran up the stairs to the first floor, and I continued past him to find the interior steps and the second floor. A lot of the doors were open, so it was easy for me walk in and take a look around. Most of them were small one-bedroom apartments, so it took only a moment to do a sweep. Occasionally, the doors were closed. I knocked before kicking them down. The place was basically abandoned, so I wasn’t too concerned about the breach in privacy. Besides, the ends justified the means.

 

“Cleared the first floor. Headed to the third.” Dad reported in. 

 

“I’m almost done with the second,” I replied. I finished the second floor and continued onto the fourth. Dad and I continued our searches but I found absolutely nothing but abandoned apartments. Something was up here. I finally met up with Dad on the seventh floor. 

 

He looked annoyed. “We’ve searched this whole place and found nothing.”

 

“We haven’t checked the basement,” I offered. He swept his bow aside in a motion offering I take the lead and I started down the stairs. The basement door was locked, and Dad knocked an explosive arrow. “No need. I’ll just pick it.”

 

“Right. You can do that.” I took out my device, and made quick work of the lock. I pushed the door open and found that the basement wasn’t lit at all. I took out my tablet and turned on its flashlight. Shining it around, I saw a typical boiler room. There was, however, an unmarked door near the back. I pointed to it, and Dad followed me. It looked like it might have been locked once upon a time, but now was completely rusted through.  _ This could be it _ . Something about this door felt ominous, meaning we were heading in the correct direction. I signaled to Dad to back up. I steeled myself and kicked the door open. A flash of light and-

 

Boom.


	9. Chapter 9

It took me a second to realize where I was. The light from the explosion had been blinding. Finally, I realized I was in another part of the East Side, with Dad and Don.

 

“Please tell me there was no one else in that building.” Don looked more worried than the situation warranted.

 

“No, it was just us. Thanks.” I smiled at him, but decided to forgo the hug I usually reserved for him after he saved my life. Don still had that worried look on his face, and I turned to see what he was looking at. 

 

Three buildings, crumbling to the ground.

 

I gasped. It was the only appropriate reaction. We had caused buildings to collapse. “Gideon!” I called out, while frantically reaching out my hand behind me to try and grab Don’s wrist.

 

“Yes, Anna?”

 

“Timeline diagnostics?!?” I was afraid to ask, but I knew it had to be done. 

 

“What has come to be known as the East Side Bombing causes 73 casualties, including 14 deaths.” I turned to Don. He had tears in his eyes. So there were other people he had needed to get out. Fourteen people spread across two other buildings. I knew that he couldn’t have done it, but that didn’t matter. What mattered is that I knew Don. He counted those deaths on his fault. He collapsed to the ground. I joined him, wrapping my arms around him tight.

 

“There’s nothing you could’ve done.” I whispered. “You didn’t know. We didn’t know.” 

 

“I’m sorry, but what’s going on here?” I looked up at my dad. “You’re telling me that fourteen people just died?”

 

“Yes and no. Some are dead now, some will succumb to injuries later.”

 

He turned to the side. “Overwatch, call in an explosion to CCPD and CCFD, at our location.”

 

“Oh my gosh, are you guys okay?” she asked, worriedly.

 

“Yes, we’re fine. But there are 73 people in need of medical assistance. And see what you can figure out about the bombing.” Dad turned and started toward the buildings. 

 

“Where are you going?” I called out after him.

 

He turned to face me. “I don’t know about you, but there are at least 73 people in those buildings who need my help. I’m going to rescue as many of them as possible.”

 

I saw what time it was on my tablet. I stood up. “You can’t.”

 

“And why not? Because I don’t have super powers? Because I don’t know the future? I’m sorry, Ryder, but I’m not going to stop saving people just because you say I can’t.” 

 

“We need to go to STAR Labs, and you’re the only one who can get us in.” 

 

“And you think that’s more important than saving these people?”

 

“I think the mission that we’re on is more important than the lives of those people in those buildings, yes.”

 

“The ones we unintentionally just killed?!? Just standing here arguing is putting them in danger.” He turned around and strode toward the rubble.

 

I closed my eyes and steeled myself. “One hundred twenty-six million, eight hundred fifty-three thousand, six hundred and seventy-six,” I said. 

 

Dad turned to face me. “What?”

 

“That’s the number of people who are killed by the LP. That’s not even everyone who dies in the Event.” He stared at me, with completely dead eyes. “So don’t tell me what is and what isn’t important! You think I don’t want to save those people in that building? Of course I do! But I decided what price I was willing to pay when I came on this mission, and I’m not going to have you tell me that I’m making the wrong calls!” I couldn’t have my dad questioning me, I just couldn’t. Not now, when the stakes were so high. 

 

Dad slowly walked back toward me, defeat clear in his posture. “Okay. If you say we need to go to STAR Labs, then that’s where we’ll go.”

 

I squatted down next to Don. “Do you think you can get us to STAR Labs? You won’t have to interact with everybody-we’ll do all of that. No one will blame you if you need a timeout.”

 

“No, I can do this.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

He looked up at me and replied, “As long as I have you, I can do anything.” Luckily we were out of Dad’s earshot. I smiled and held out my hand to hoist him up. Once he got to his feet, he held out his arms to both of us for our next run. I held onto him extra tightly this time, as we ran off to face our next adventure.


	10. Chapter 10

We arrived in the Cortex at just the right time. It seems like the team had just gotten back from destroying Savitar. As soon as we arrived, we had all eyes on us. I did a quick check to make sure I recognized everyone: Mr. Allen, Mrs. West-Allen, Cisco, Wally, and Grandpa Joe I all knew by sight. There was also Harry, the Earth-2 Wells; Tracy Brand, a scientist that helped with Speed Force tech; Jay Garrick, the Flash from Earth-3; Dr. Julian Albert, a CSI who helped out with meta biology; and Gypsy, a woman with Vibe powers. Team Flash made sure I knew everyone before I went on this mission, and I was glad. It was quite a few people to keep track of.

 

“Okay, and who are you?” yelled Cisco. We had probably made quite the appearance, but it wasn’t as if random people weren’t speeding into the Cortex at all hours anyway. 

 

“Cisco, calm down.” This from Dad. “I brought some people who need your help.”

 

“Oliver, can this wait? There was an explosion on the East Side and-” 

 

“No, this absolutely cannot wait. Mr. Allen, I need your help.” And I didn’t want to hear any more about the explosion I inadvertantly caused. 

 

“Why do you need Barry’s help? Who are you?” Mrs. West-Allen turned to her son. “Are you another speedster?”

 

It didn’t look like Don was willing to answer her right now, so I stepped in. “We’re from the future, your future.”

 

Mr. Allen stepped toward me. “You’re from the future? When?”

 

“Further than you’ve ever been.”

 

Dad chimed in. “Remember when we had a visitor from the future a few years ago? This is her. Anna’s on my team in the future. And yes, Don is another speedster. He’s apparently on your team in the future.”

 

“Don?” Something almost imperceptible flashed across Mrs. West-Allen’s face. Rather than dwell on it, I stepped in again.

 

“We’re here to prevent a catastrophe from happening.”

 

“Wait-there’s something out there worse than Savitar?” Wally sounded so innocent. Yes, the problem of the god of speed might’ve been troubling them for a year, but it was hardly a drop in the metaphorical bucket. 

 

“Yes. Much worse.”

 

Mr. Allen spoke up again. “If Oliver says you’re legit, that’s one thing. I’d love to help you, but we only just defeated Savitar, and I’m not sure how much use I’ll be in heading off another villain.”

 

“That’s actually not what I need. I need yours, Dr. Albert’s, and Dr. Wells’, and Dr. Brand’s skills as scientists, actually.”

 

Now Dr. Albert looked intrigued. “What do you need our help with?”

 

I pulled out my tablet. “I need you to reverse engineer this chemical to determine its origins.” I held out the molecular structure of LP in the human body toward him.

 

“That’s quite a complex chemical you have there.”

 

“It’s called LP. This is what it looks like after twenty years in the human body. I need to know what it looks like in raw or aqueous form.”

 

Dr. Wells grabbed my tablet out of my hand. “I’m sure we can figure out.” He nodded to the others.  I appreciated Dr. Wells’ confidence, but I knew this was a tricky puzzle. They strode off to the STAR Labs tech playhouse, except for Mr. Allen, who stayed behind. He turned to address Dad.

 

“Oliver, you’re telling me there’s people to save and we’re supposed to be working on this problem instead?”

 

“I know it’s hard to understand, but this takes precedence.”

 

Dad and Mr. Allen had a bit of a stare-off. It was a dynamic I had seen between them many times. Despite being about the same age and having approximately the same amount of experience in the field, Mr. Allen deferred to Dad as a sort of mentor. The same thing happened now, with Mr. Allen nodding.

 

“Alright. I’ll trust you.” He went out into the hallway, presumably to join the others.

 

Mr. Garrick spoke up next. “So, if you don’t need the rest of us, we should go take care of that building collapse.” He looked to Wally, Gypsy, and Cisco. 

 

“I’m afraid I can’t have you doing that.” 

 

“What do you mean, you can’t? I don’t take orders from you or anyone on this Earth.” Gypsy had a point; she wasn’t mine to command.

 

“Because a chain of timeline-altering events has begun to unfold. And you and Mr. Garrick shouldn’t be anywhere near this Earth when it happens. I need you back home and safe.”

 

“You don’t have to worry about me, I’ll be just fine,” Mr. Garrick said. 

 

“We can’t know that. And until we get through this and solidify the timeline, no one in this room is to do anything dangerous or life-threatening, got it?”

 

Grandpa Joe spoke up. “What do you mean, an altered timeline?”

 

I knew how things worked at STAR Labs. I went over to the whiteboard, grabbed a marker and drew a straight line.

 

“This is the timeline as it was supposed to be after Savitar was killed. It leads directly to what we call the Event, which is a catastrophe of epic proportions.” I drew a line deviating from the point of origin. “This is the timeline I created when the building exploded. It branches off from the moment the bomb went off, and goes who knows where.” I capped my marker. “That building explosion wasn’t supposed to happen. You were never supposed to go there. If you do, and you get hurt, that affects the timelines on your Earths, as well. In four days’ time, you can come back. But for now, the two of you,” I pointed to Gypsy and Mr. Garrick, “need to go back to your Earths, and you,” I pointed at Wally, “need to stay close to home to make sure you stay safe. Got it?”

 

Gypsy still looked hesitant. “You came back to change the timeline on purpose?”

 

“Yes. I will do whatever it takes to avoid the Event. What. Ever.” 

 

Gypsy must’ve seen the determination in my eyes, because she backed down. “If all of you are going along with it, fine. It’s your Earth. I’ll go back to mine and drop Garrick off on the way.” She nodded to Cisco, then opened up a portal, and she and Mr. Garrick jumped through it. 

 

Wally finally spoke up. “But there’s no reason I can’t go and help, right?”

 

“Yes, there is. If you get hurt in this altered timeline, you won’t be able to help out the team in the future when you’re needed.” Or when Mr. Allen goes into the Speed Force for six months and the city needs protecting.

 

“I don’t care. Those people need help.” Wally sped out of the Cortex. Awkward silence ensued.

 

“So you’re really from far in the future?” Cisco asked.

 

“Yes,” I responded.

 

“What’s the future like?”

 

“It sucks,” Don answered, the first thing he’d said since we arrived at STAR Labs. I didn’t disagree, of course, but it wasn’t the kind of thing one necessarily told people in the past. 

 

“I don’t know how bad the future can be if you both have such dope suits, though.”

 

I sighed. “I know what you’re asking. Yes, Cisco, you made the suits.”

 

“Oh-ho-ho, that’s too awesome.”

 

“Cisco!” came in over the comms.

 

“Wally, what’s the problem?”

 

Silence.

 

“Hang on, Wally, I’ll be right there.” He turned to Don. “Flash Jr., you’re with me.” Don didn’t even respond before Cisco had a portal open, and the two of them were jumping through it. A few seconds later, they came back through with a clearly injured Wally.

 

“Wally!” Mrs. West-Allen called out. 

 

Dad strode up to Don and Cisco, and helped get Wally to the med bay. I followed to see how bad the damage was. 

 

“What happened to him?” Mrs. West-Allen asked.

 

“A support beam collapsed on him. We need Julian,” Cisco replied.  _ No, I need him on the chemical analysis team. _

 

“Don can take care of him,” I said. 

 

Cisco turned to Don. “What can you do?”

 

“I trust him,” Mrs. West-Allen jumped in. “Please, just figure out what’s wrong with him.”

 

“Gideon,” Don called out.

 

“Yes, Don?”

 

“Whoa!” Cisco cried out. Don and I ignored him.

 

“Run a medical diagnosis on Wally.” Don held out his watch over Wally’s torso, and waited as Gideon scanned him. 

 

“Mr. West is suffering from third degree burns, a broken leg and a severe concussion.”

 

“Treatment plan?” I asked.

 

“Mr. West needs to be soaked in cool running water with minimal head movement then cover the burns in burn ointment. He will only regain consciousness after his concussion subsides.”

 

Don rushed Wally off, probably to give him the prescribed treatment.

 

“Is Wally going to be okay?” Mrs. West-Allen asked. 

 

“He’s in good hands. Don and Gideon know what they’re doing.”

 

“Is Flash Jr. also a doctor?” Cisco asked.

 

_ Maybe in another life _ . “He’s a trained medic. He’s used to dealing with battle wounds.”

 

Dad, who had been quietly standing out of the way, folded his arms. “What do we do next?”

 

“I’m going to go check in on the chemists, and then on Don and Wally.” I headed out into the hallway, but Mrs. West-Allen followed me and pulled me aside.

 

“Exactly how far in the future are you from?”

 

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t tell you that. Why do you ask?”

 

“It’s Don. I have the strangest feeling I’ve met him before. He just looks so familiar.”

 

“I can’t tell you if you’ve met him by now or not.” I shrugged. “That’s how being a Traveler works.” 

 

“You know, Barry and I once came up with a list of baby names, half-serious, half-joking. On the top of the list for both boys and girls was Don. That seems like a pretty big coincidence, don’t you think?”

 

I kept my face neutral, but Mrs. West-Allen apparently already had this all figured out. “The universe is full of coincidences.”

 

“Alright, ‘Anna’.” Why did she say my name like that? Like she knew it was a fake? “Keep Don safe then, ya?” 

 

“I’ll do what I can.” I turned and continued walking down the hallway. I got to the tech lab, and walked into complete chaos. It looked like Dr. Albert and Dr. Wells were having an argument, and Mr. Allen was trying to separate them. Dr. Brand was in the corner, sulking.

 

“I’m saying if we take ionization into account-”

 

“This is a covalent molecule, there’s no need for that!”

 

“All molecules ionize, Albert, it’s just a matter of degrees.”

 

“It’s such a minimal amount that we’d be wasting time factoring it!”

 

I had to interrupt. “Hey, guys?” No response. “Guys!” I yelled louder. They turned to look at me. “Arguing about it is wasting even more time.”

 

Mr. Allen threw his hands up in the air. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”

 

“Look, if you can’t work together on this, we’re all doomed. I came to you for help because I couldn’t do it myself, but if you can’t, I guess I’m going to have to. Even though I’m not a master in particle physics,” I looked at Dr. Wells, “or biology,” I looked at Dr. Albert, “or forensics,” I looked at Mr. Allen, “or even physics, I guess it’ll be up to me, a teenager, to save the world.” They all looked at me with severe skepticism, even Dr. Brand.

 

“Look, I need this analysis run as soon as possible. I know you’ve all had a long month, and I’m just adding to it, but I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t of the utmost importance. So, please, work together, and get it done.”

 

“Right. Then I guess I’ll get to work on calculating the ionization effect.” At least Dr. Albert was cooperating. 

 

“I’ll look at bond angles.” And Dr. Wells. 

 

“Good. Thank you.” Right before I left, Mr. Allen walked up to me.

 

“They can argue a lot, but they’ll get it done eventually.” He smiled at me. I’d always liked Mr. Allen’s smile. Ever since I was little, it had made me feel like I was safe, and it did the same now. “But I don’t know how much Tracy is going to help us. Her boyfriend just died last night, and-”

 

“I get it. But keep her in here just to see if she can come up with any ideas.” Okay, that sounded harsh. “And so she doesn’t have to be alone tonight.”

 

I walked out of the lab and back into the hallway, where I saw Don sitting up against the wall. I went to sit next to him. “How’s Wally?”

 

“He regained consciousness. I explained to Grandpa Joe, Mom, and Cisco how to care for him. Gideon estimates he’ll be completely recovered in three days.”

 

I leaned my head back and sighed. “So he won’t be joining the mission.”

 

“No. Now we’re down two speedsters and I don’t know if-”

 

“Well, I do. You can do it. Whatever you need to do. And I’ll be here the whole time.”

 

“Thanks.” A small smile hit his face, but quickly subsided. “You were right. It was harder seeing them than I thought.” 

 

“I know. But as soon as we fix this, we’ll go back home, and they’ll be there, waiting.”

 

“It’s been so long, and now seeing them, and not having them recognize me...it hurts.”

 

I bumped my shoulder against his. I considered telling him that his mom knew who he was, but that would probably bring him more pain than relief right now, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to interact with her anyway. Instead, I stood up, and offered my hand. He stood up just as Oliver walked out of the Cortex.    
  


“Are we going to head back to Star City?”

 

“Yeah, they seem to have a handle on things here. I’ll check up again in the morning.”

 

Don held his arm out, and away we went. 


	11. Chapter 11

When we got back to the Bunker, Mom seemed surprised to see us.

 

“I thought you were going to stay and help the CCFD out with the bombing.”

 

“Apparently not.” Dad glared at me. I could handle him being mad at me, as long as he did what I said. “We went to STAR Labs instead.”

 

“STAR Labs?” Mom tilted her head at me.

 

“I’m having the scientists there look at the structure of LP and see what they can determine.”

 

“Right. Well, I looked into that apartment building that got bombed, tried to see if there was anything suspicious. Funny thing is, the cell phone signal is still originating from the same point as it was before the bombing.”

 

Dad shook his head. “That’s not possible. That building was decimated. It might’ve survived if it was in one of the adjacent buildings, but not at the point of origin of the detonation.” Don hung his head. He still clearly blamed himself for the explosion, but that was something I’d have to deal with later. 

 

I pulled out my tablet and tried to see if I could trace the signal. “I’m still not getting any cellular signals from that location.” I looked between my tablet and Mom’s monitors, unclear on where the discrepancy could be coming from. Then I wanted to hit myself on the head. “Is the signal being bounced off a keyhole satellite?”

 

Mom started typing furiously. “Uhhh….yes. It is.”

 

“So it was a trap. And we fell for it.” Dad was right. It was the most basic of traps, and we didn’t bother to avoid it. “Where’s the real signal coming from?”

 

“A shut-down fertilizer plant in the Glades.” Okay, that was random. 

 

“Who owns it?”

 

“Rickman Industries.” No idea what that was. Still, we needed to investigate.

 

“Let’s go check it out.”

 

“Wait.” Dad couldn’t be serious. There was no time! “If we rush in without our heads on straight, we’re going to fall into another trap. Let’s bring the whole team in tomorrow and take a look at it. With everyone there, we’ll get better surveillance and avoid any tricks.”

 

I knew Dad was right, even if I didn’t want to admit it. My body desperately needed rest after a barrage of missions, and Don and Dad couldn’t have been doing much better. “Fine. Could you let the team know I want them here first thing?”

 

Dad nodded, and turned to Mom, presumably to get the word out. I turned to find Don, who was sitting in the other chair, aimlessly spinning back and forth. “Looks like someone needs some shut-eye.”

 

He broke his funk to look up at me. “Yeah, for sure. You coming?” I knew what he meant; there were at least three cots back in the sleeping area. But I suspected Dad wanted to have a chat with me after everything that happened today, and now seemed like as good a time as any. 

 

“Actually, I think I’m going to stay up a bit.”

 

“Alright. Just make sure you get at least some rest tonight. And something to eat.”

 

“You got it, champ.” I was so tired I leaned in for a hug, but then remembered why that was a bad idea. Just as Don was about to walk away, Mom turned to us with a big smirk on her face.

 

“How cute! A member of Team Arrow and a member of Team Flash dating!”

 

Dad turned around, confusion written all over his features, as he and I exclaimed at the same time, “Dating?”

 

“Why would you say something like that?” I asked.

 

“Oh, come on, it’s totally obvious how you are around each other. Plus, I heard you basically declare your love for each other earlier.”

 

Dad looked from Mom to Don to me and back again. “You’re saying....you’re dating...him?”

 

Mom seemed to go for the graceful exit. “I’m actually going to go home. I told the whole team to get here early, so….okay, I’m gone.” And she walked off toward the elevator.

 

This was going just about as well as it did last time. Don turned to me. “Why don’t I leave you and your dad to...talk?” I nodded, and he literally flashed off to the back of the Bunker. 

 

Leaving me to face my dad, alone.

 

Fun.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“So that’s your boyfriend?” Dad sat down in Mom’s chair. I did likewise across from him. 

 

“Yeah.” What did he want me to say?

 

“How long have you two been together?”

 

“Two and a half years.”

 

“So that was the boyfriend you talked about last time.”

 

“Yep.” Okay, so far this could’ve gone better, but could’ve gone much worse. “Is this going to be a problem?”

 

“No, of course not. I just never imagined that my daughter and the Flash’s son would get together.”  _ Oh _ .

 

“You know?”

 

“Come on, Ryder, you can’t bring in a biracial speedster from the future and try and convince me he’s anyone but Barry and Iris’ kid.”

 

“Right.” If Dad and Iris had figured it out, I could only imagine who else had managed to put it together.

 

“Does he treat you well?”

 

“Seriously, Dad?”

 

“I’m being very serious here.”

 

“You don’t think you would’ve killed him by now if he didn’t?”

 

“True.”

 

We lapsed into silence, and I guess Dad had had all his questions answered about my boyfriend. Just as I was standing up, Dad spoke up again, so quiet I could barely hear him. “I thought it was going to be Laurel.”  _ What was he talking about? _

 

I sat back down. “You thought what was going to be Laurel?”

 

“Your mother.”  _ Oh _ .

 

“You thought Mom was Laurel?”

 

“Your name. I thought we were continuing the tradition.”

 

“If you thought you were going to end up with Laurel, why did you get engaged to Felicity?”

 

“I didn’t know…” he chuckled humorlessly, “I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought maybe I was wrong, and it could be Felicity. But then I learned about William, and she broke up with me, and Laurel died, and it left me thinking...who could it be? Then I started dating Susan, but that ended in disaster. And I’m starting to worry...what if I screw this up and you and Tommy aren’t born at all?”

 

Poor Dad. I thought that maybe me showing up at a low point in his life would help him see the bright future he had in front of him, but apparently it had only added to his burden. Not like I was even convinced he had that great of a life to look forward to after all, not anymore. 

 

“I’m sorry about Laurel. I know I only got to meet her briefly, but I can see how much she meant to you and the team. And I’m sorry that your personal life hasn’t been going great of late, I really am. I don’t know what to say. I’m not going to tell you who Mom is. That’s something you need to figure out.”  _ Both of you _ . 

 

“There was a time last year, I thought I was ready. Ready to be a husband, ready to be your dad, but now I realize...I’m not. I’m not sure I’ll ever be. Chase showed that to me, and-”

 

“I wish you wouldn’t say that, Dad. You’re going to be a great dad when the time comes. It just hasn’t yet.”  _ And maybe it won’t _ . 

 

“If I’m such a great dad, then why didn’t I come back with you on this mission to help? Why did I let you go all by yourself?”

 

“I’m not alone. I have Don.”

 

“You know what I mean.”

 

I sighed. “It’s not as simple as that. You coming back in time is almost a guaranteed paradox. It’s against Traveler rules. You couldn’t have come even if you had wanted to.”  _ And you didn’t _ .

 

“If you say so.” Dad didn’t look convinced. “Look, you need to go get your rest. Go to bed, I’ll be along shortly.”

 

I got up. “Go ahead and brood all night.” I headed back to the cots.

 

“Good-night, Ryder,” Dad called out after me.

 

“Good-night, Dad.”


	12. Chapter 12

I got to the back of the Bunker and found Don sound asleep on his cot. Another difference between the two of us: Don was an incredibly sound sleeper. He could just lay down and immediately fall asleep. I climbed onto a cot against the wall, and sat down. I knew there was no point in sitting down until I got all of these racing thoughts out of my mind. My conversation with Dad had reminded me of everything that had gone on before we arrived in the past. 

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 183 post-Event. I didn’t like counting the days like that, but it was really the only metric that mattered. I supposed if I had stopped and thought, I could come up with what month it was, but that wasn’t important. What did matter was that it had been 183 days of disaster and heartbreak. We were at STAR Labs, those of us who were left, trying to decide who would be on the Team Flashback. The twins were obvious choices, and I, of course, needed to get in on the action.

 

“Are you sure, Ryder?” Cisco asked me. “You go back and change the past, you’ll come back to an unrecognizable present.” Like I didn’t know.

 

“I know how being a Traveler works. I have the skills, I have the experience, and, most importantly, I won’t have been born yet, meaning less chance for a paradox.” 

 

Cisco stared at me, baffled. “But what about-”

 

“I’m sure, Cisco.” I cut him off before he revealed my secret. I didn’t want anyone else in this room knowing. I needed to be on this mission, and I couldn’t have anything jeopardizing that.

 

“Okay, well, I think I should go.”

 

“You have got to be kidding me, Uncle Cisco,” Frankie said. “If this mission fails, you’re the person with the most knowledge of LP. We lose you, we lose everything.”

 

“Okay, but my knowledge of LP is exactly the reason I should be going. I can get Barry started on his research, and-”

 

“And what can you do that my tablet can’t?” I knew it was harsh, but it was the truth. We could only send the most expendable people on this mission, and the world could do without the twins and I right about now. “We need Mr. Allen’s science skills more than we need yours.” 

 

Don and Frankie didn’t say anything, but I knew they agreed. We needed a chemist, not an engineer. The last six months had proved that.

 

“What about me and Oliver?” Dig asked. “We’re more valuable there than we are here.”

 

“Dig, do you think that a past version of you would be able to operate effectively with a present version of you as a teammate? Another paradox waiting to happen.”

 

“Point taken.”

 

“Oliver?” Cisco asked. Dad lifted his head up, as if he were somehow just joining this conversation. No one was surprised. With his unkempt beard and dead eyes, it was a wonder anyone even recognized him. Another thing the day count was good for was calculating how long Dad had been out of it. 183 days. 

 

“You really think he’ll be any help on this mission, Cisco?” This time, I wasn’t afraid to be blunt. 

 

“Come on, Ryder, he’s the best fighter we have.”

 

“No, he’s not. He  _ was _ the best fighter we had, but he’s not anymore. I am. All he is right now is a liability.”

 

Again, Don and Frankie stayed silent, signaling their ascent. 

 

“So that’s it? You three?” Grandpa Joe asked. “I know you’re good, but surely you need more help than that.”

 

“Who else is there?”

 

“The Legends, Supergirl’s team, anyone from the other Earths.”

 

“Sara and Ray were pretty clear that the Legends want no part in this. And having people from other Earths mess with the timeline like this, even Supergirl, is asking for a paradox.” Cisco was right. 

 

“And what’s wrong with that?” Grandpa Joe asked. I knew what he wanted and how badly he wanted it. But destroying time itself on this Earth to get the results he wanted wasn’t responsible. I wasn’t even sure that changing the timeline was.

 

“The results could be worse if we mess with time more than necessary.”

 

“I don’t care! If it’ll bring them back…” He broke off into a sob. The room lapsed into silence. 

 

“Can I come?” Oh, Tommy. 

 

I had almost forgotten that Tommy was in the room. He usually stayed out of team strategy sessions, but the last 183 days had changed all that. Tommy had become part of the team, whether we liked it or not. He more than just sat in on team meetings, he contributed. He actually came up with some pretty good ideas, and was getting more comfortable working with Cisco and his tech. That wasn’t the problem.

 

Don and I exchanged glances. Tommy would add nothing to Team Flashback. No powers, no fighting skills, minimal Traveling experience. And he was far too young. He was the only one in the room I wasn’t willing to insult with my brash feedback.

 

“Tommy, I know you want to help out, but the way you do that is staying here and helping Cisco if things go south.”

 

“You never let me help! You’re always sidelining me!” Now was not the time for a pre-teen outburst. 

 

“I just want to keep you safe, Tommy. That’s my number one priority now.” I glanced at Dad, but he had no reaction.  _ Of course not.  _

 

“And you can keep me safe, on the team.”

 

“No. You can’t fight or defend yourself beyond the basics.”

 

“Only because you refuse to teach me!” The agreement had been for Dad to start Tommy’s training when he turned twelve. It wasn’t much later than when I had started, and Tommy was really pushing for it. Mom was a bit more hesitant, but I convinced her that Tommy could handle it. After the Event, training Tommy fell to me, but I hadn’t made it my top priority. I had Cisco babysitting him when I could, figuring he was of more use in a lab than in the field, given the circumstances.

 

“You’re not going, and that’s final.”

 

“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” He looked to Dad to see if Dad could issue a command, tell me I was wrong, something, but he didn’t. 

 

“I don’t see anyone else doing it, so, yes, I do!” 

 

“Tommy, you need to listen to your sister.” This from Grandpa Joe, who I know Tommy saw as his own grandfather. He’d listen to him.

 

“Besides, we can hang out and do some more experiments with the LP.” Good to know Cisco was on my side, too.

 

“Fine, whatever,” Tommy mumbled down to his shoes. 

 

“So it’s decided: Frankie, Don and Ryder are the new official Team Flashback.” Everyone nodded or murmured their agreement. As they all filed out of the room to get started on prepping the team, I walked up to Dad, who was still hunched up on his stool. 

 

“I really could’ve used your help with that. Or at least your support.”

 

Dad looked up at me, and looked like he was seeing me for the first time that day. “It seemed like you had it handled. He doesn’t listen to me anyway.”

 

“He doesn’t listen to you because you haven’t said anything to him for the last six months.”

 

“What do you want me to do?” Here, he was so silent, I wasn’t sure if he was speaking to me or himself. 

 

“I want you to be his father, so that I don’t have to be.”

 

“You protect him. You keep him safe. That’s what he needs. Not me.” And with that, he stood up and walked out on me.

 

Cisco came back into the room, giving Dad a funny look as he did. “So are we going to talk about this?”

 

“What now?”

 

“Why it’s a terrible idea for you, specifically, to go on this mission.”

 

“No, we’re not.”

 

“Okay, then we’ll talk about the problems with the mission in the first place. The chance of you Marty McFlying yourself out of existence are so high that-”

 

“I could cause a paradox, causing the Event to happen anyway. I know.”

 

“The more you interact with your family in the past, the worse it gets.”

 

“Whose idea was this mission anyway, Cisco?”

 

“I know, I just didn’t think anyone would agree with me.”

 

“We’re all broken. Maybe beyond repair. I just want to fix my family. All of them.”

 

“If you go on this mission, that means you three are the only ones who don’t get fixed.”

 

“If we come back from this and our family’s safe, that’s all the fixing we’ll need. That’s all we’ve needed for one hundred and eighty-three days.”

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I didn’t regret my decision to come on this mission. Not for one second. They were my family. There was nothing I wouldn’t risk for that. Nothing.


	13. Chapter 13

I might’ve dozed on and off throughout the night, but I couldn’t really tell. I was as rested as I could be, so I just decided to go with it. I looked over to Dad’s cot to see that he wasn’t there. I had remembered seeing him during the night, though, so he got some sleep. Don was still sleeping, so I got up to wake him. After shaking him a couple times, and whispering his name, he came to.

 

“Good morning,” he said groggily.

 

“Come on, the team is waiting for us.” I could hear them talking in the main part of the Bunker. 

 

“Right.” He rolled out of bed and flashed us into our suits. He always promised me that speed-changing me was a completely innocent routine, but I wasn’t always so sure that I believed him. We walked into the main part of the Bunker, where the rest of the team was indeed waiting.

 

“Good morning,” Dad addressed me. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

 

I could ask him the same question. “Enough. Is everyone ready?”

 

“Just waiting on your plan.” Right, I was still in charge. Don brought me a bagel from a box I hadn’t seen on the conference table. I took a couple of bites, then walked up to Mom and asked her to pull up the blueprints of the fertilizer plant and put them on the screen.

 

“Alright, everyone, listen up. As you probably already heard, last night, we entered a trap that caused a minor explosion.”

 

“Eleven people are confirmed dead, Little Blondie. We’re calling that minor now?”

 

“It could’ve been worse.” The team grumbled about that, looking at me like I was crazy. “What I’m saying is now you guys are going to make sure that nothing like that happens again. We won’t be in a residential area, and surveillance shows that the plant has been abandoned for at least three months, with not even security personnel on site.”

 

“So what are we looking for?” Dig asked.

 

“Anything remotely suspicious. There’s a cell signal coming from this building that’s linked to someone that’s interested in poisoning the water supply.”

 

“How do we know this isn’t another trap?” asked Curtis.

 

“We don’t. But it’s the only lead we have, and we’re going to go with it.”

 

“What’s the plan?” Dad asked.

 

“We’re going to go in in teams of two from each of the building’s four corners. Rene, you’re with Curtis in the northeast corner. Dinah, with Dig in the northwest corner. Oliver, you’re with Don in the southeast, and I’ll go with Thea to the southwest.” That would balance the more technically-minded members with those who preferred brute strength. “We’re going in with the utmost caution, and we’re not stopping until we’ve swept the whole plant. Call in anything suspicious at all. Got it?”

 

The team nodded and we headed out. 

 

“Anna?” Mom called out after me.

 

I turned around and headed back to her. “Yeah?”

 

“Keep your comms on, okay?”

 

“Yeah, I will.” Man, they would apparently never let that go.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

We got to the plant in broad daylight, not that it mattered. There was nothing and no one around. I repeated the assignments to everyone as we got out of the van, and everyone signaled their understanding of the plan. I nodded to Don as he went off with Dad, and I went off with Aunt Thea.

 

“So I hear you’re a pretty talented fighter.” Ah, small talk. My favorite.

 

“I should hope so. Your brother trained me. He’s an amazing fighter.”

 

“Right. Ollie helped train me, too. You know I once beat him in a fight, as Green Arrow?” I heard actually heard that story many times, as Aunt Thea never let Dad live it down. I knew he had been going easy on her, but still I acted impressed in the moment for Aunt Thea’s sake. We arrived at our corner of the plant and radioed in.

 

“In position.” Once we heard the same from everyone else, I picked the lock of the nearest door and went in. Using the flashlight from my tablet to light the dark hallways, we started poking around. I had assigned myself to what appeared to be the offices of the plant. I started digging through some filing cabinets, but didn’t find much more than a stray expense report here and there. It looked like the place had been thoroughly cleaned out once the plant had been shut  down. No electronics or anything hackable. After half an hour, we seemed to have cleared our way through the offices.

 

We then found ourselves in what looked like a chemical processing room. There was a warning on the door advertising “Hazardous Chemicals Within.” Aunt Thea hesitated.

 

“Are you sure we should go in there? We’re basically looking for a chemical weapon, right?”

 

“You stay out here. I’ll quickly look through it.” What difference did it make if I was poisoned at this point anyway?

 

“Look, we can come back, with some equipment or something and-”

 

“It’ll take us days for that. It’ll just be a quick peek, promise.” 

 

Before Aunt Thea could say anything else, I snuck into the room and closed the door behind me. The room wasn’t that large and was easily lit by my tablet. There were a couple lab benches and some discarded equipment, but nothing too interesting. I dug through the various drawers, and didn’t find anything but some broken glass here and there, as well as a ton of dust and bugs. Finally, I searched through a large cabinet and found an old flip phone. Was this the burner we were looking for? 

 

I flipped it open and found that the background image was black and white text: “Contamination Unit.” What the heck? I accessed the contacts list, and found nothing. No incoming or outgoing messages. There was only one outgoing call to an unknown number. I called the number again. It was answered on the first ring.

 

“Hello?” Russian accent.  _ Mikhail _ . I didn’t say anything, and hung up. So the Bratva were telling us the truth. They really had gotten a call from this number and not much else. But why hide the phone here? Why not just dump it or destroy it?

 

“Guys, I found the phone. It’s the same one we traced.”

 

“Do you want us to keep searching?” Dad asked.

 

“Yeah. It makes no sense for anyone to stash the phone here. We need to figure out what this place is.”

 

As I finished my sentence, I heard the click of an electronic door locking and then the hissing of gas. I ran to the door I entered through, and found it locked. 

 

“Speedy, the door’s locked on my side.”

 

“On my side, too.”

 

“Overwatch, I’m in the southwest corner of the building, in a small chemical lab. I’ve been locked in.” I started trying to hack the lock with my tablet, as I’m sure Mom was trying to do back in the Bunker. The strange thing was I couldn’t break the access code. This door was incredibly well protected. Why? Who were they trying to keep out of this lab?

 

“Anna, I’ll come and speed you out.” I waited for the familiar rush of a speedster rescue, but felt nothing. “I can’t speed. There must be a meta dampener somewhere.” This was another trap. But what kind of meta dampener hadn’t been picked up by Mom before we went in? Had they only turned it on after we arrived? It would have to wait. I needed to focus on the problem at hand.   
  


“There’s some kind of gaseous agent infiltrating the room, and there’s no ventilation.” What kind of chemical lab didn’t have a lab hood? The hissing was getting louder, if anything. I tried to find the source, to see if I could shut it off, but I couldn’t find anything physical or digital. “Guys, the gas wasn’t turned on remotely. It had to have been assessed on site.”

 

“We’ll find him.” Dad said. He needed to act fast. Not that I’d report this in, but I was having trouble breathing. Suddenly, standing seemed hard. I sat down instead, and leaned against the door so I’d be easy to find in case... _ don’t think that way _ . My veins felt like they were on fire. Whatever this was, it wasn’t just affecting my lungs. It was getting into my bloodstream.

 

“We’ve cleared the building. There’s no one here. No vehicles besides ours, either.” That didn’t make any sense. Someone had to have been here. I held my breath. Someone had to have….no more time for thinking. I let out my last breath and closed my eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

I woke up feeling constricted, like I was trapped. I wrestled with my restraints, before I realized it was just a sleeping bag. I climbed out of it to find myself on the floor of Frankie’s bedroom. I’d recognize the white and lilac color scheme anywhere.  _ What the… _ My head was fuzzy, and I couldn’t exactly remember why I was here. Frankie’s bed was disheveled, like it had just been slept in. Was I at a sleepover? That seemed to be the only explanation. I was fully dressed, though, so maybe we had gone out on a mission last night and I crashed here? Made as much sense as just about anything else in my life.

 

In my search for answers, I went downstairs to see if any of the other Allens were home, or if anyone else was around. I stumbled into the kitchen, and found Mr. Allen drinking coffee and reading the paper. It must’ve been the weekend if he wasn’t already at work. 

 

“Mr. Allen?”

 

“Hello, Ryder.”

 

“Sorry, I don’t exactly remember what happened last night. Were we on a mission?”

 

“Why don’t you sit down?”

 

I sat down across from him, and he set down the paper and folded it neatly. He didn’t say anything for a while, just looked at me. Something about him was...off. There wasn’t any light behind his eyes, and he wasn’t giving me his patented smile. What was going on?   
  


“Mr. Allen, what’s happening here?”

 

“I’m not Barry Allen.” Oh, great. A duplicate? A time remnant? An imposter? A shapeshifter? There were dozens of things he could be. But he didn’t seem to want to hurt me. “We just thought this shape would be comforting to you.”

 

_ We? _ That’s when I realized what this was. Don and Frankie had described it to me many times, but I had never quite understood it. Now I was beginning to.

 

“Am I speaking to the Speed Force?” Mr. Allen, or whatever I was supposed to call it, just nodded. “How is this possible? I’m not a speedster.”

 

Mr. Allen bent his head toward my wrist, and I looked down. My calcified Speed Force bracelet was glowing. “When we gave you that, it did more than protect you from the rare power of the time stream. It connected us. You may not be a speedster, but we still look out for our own.” Okay, so now I was somehow connected to the Speed Force. 

 

“Why did you bring me here?” 

 

“What are you doing, Ryder?”

 

“What do you mean?” Details were starting to come back to me about where I was and what I was doing. “I travelled back in time to save the world.”

 

“Why do you think you can just mess with the timeline?” It hurt to hear something that sounded like Mr. Allen asking these questions. The fact that he might not have wanted us to go on this mission was one of the main arguments against going in the first place. 

 

“We’re not messing with the timeline. Our team’s job is to protect the world, and we failed. So now we’re setting it right.”

 

“Who’s to say this is the right way to put it?”

 

“Are you saying that hundreds of millions of people were supposed to die like that? That the world is somehow a better place for it? Because it isn’t.”

 

“So just like that, the timeline needs resetting? Because Barry Allen did that once.”

 

“This isn’t like that. This isn’t Flashpoint.” Another reason we were cautious going on this mission.

 

“So this isn’t about saving your mother?”

 

“Only so far as she’s one of the millions that needs saving.” This wasn’t my personal vendetta. “In case you forgot, I’m risking my own life by going on this mission.”

 

“Risking your life doesn’t always make you a hero.”

 

“I’m no hero. But I’m no lost girl who needs her mother, either. I’m just...me.”

 

Mr. Allen looked at me skeptically. “Ryder, we both know that’s not true.”

 

A long silence followed. Finally, I asked, “So, are you going to keep me here to keep me from the mission?”

 

“You’re not mine to keep. I’m only warning you.”

 

“If you didn’t want us to go, you could’ve stopped Don or Frankie.”

 

Mr. Allen gave me a discerning look. “What’s to say I didn’t?”

 

_ Oh, no _ ,  _ Frankie _ . Had the Speed Force somehow stopped her from making the time jump? Before I had time to ask questions, Mr. Allen tilted his head.   
  


“I think it’s time for you to go now. Be careful, Ryder.”

 

And with that, the kitchen around me faded until everything was black.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

As my world came back into focus, I realized I was lying on something hard and cold. I opened my eyes to see I was in the Bunker, lying on the medical table. I sat up to find that I was connected to an IV. This was a familiar scene to me. Probably more Speed Force trickery. 

 

Mom strode over to me, with a combination of anger and relief on her face. “You’re awake.”

 

“Yeah, I am.”  _ Remember, she’s not your mom. She’s just the Speed Force. _

 

“Lucky you and your father have the same blood type.” Okay, not exactly philosophy here, but I’d have to see where it went.

 

“Yeah, we’re both A. Which you would know if you were real.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Look, you already made your point, you don’t want me here. But get used to it.”

 

“I never said I didn’t want you here. I just wish you had told me the truth.”

 

“Literally a minute ago, you were Mr. Allen, and you were telling me I shouldn’t have time travelled.”

 

“Are you hallucinating? I’m not Barry. I’m Felicity.”  _ Crap _ . This was the real Mom, not a Speed Force construct. I was probably confusing the heck out of her. I quickly reviewed what I had said, but it was what  _ she  _ had said that concerned me.

 

She said Dad. As in Oliver Queen.

 

Just as I was having this wonderful thought, Dad came into my sight, probably from the back of the Bunker. Apparently I had missed a lot while I was unconscious. Dad didn’t look too happy about the recent turn of events, either.

 

I tried backpedaling. “Look, Felicity, I didn’t mean-”

 

“Save it. I know Oliver’s your father, Anna.”

 

I turned to look at my dad. “How does she know?” I really didn’t care about denying it at this point. Not sure what difference it made.

 

“He didn’t tell me, if that’s what you mean,” Mom jumped in. “We needed to know your blood type, so I ran a DNA analysis on you. That told me your blood type.”

 

“So? Not all people with type A are related.”

 

“No, but I looked closer at your DNA. One of your X chromosomes looked a little too familiar.” So she could recognize Dad's DNA but not her own. I guessed she didn't run too many analyses on herself.

 

“She put it together, Anna, I’m sorry.” Dad looked disappointed in himself.

 

“Who else knows?”

 

“No one else was here when we found out. The team is too busy searching every inch of that plant.”

 

“Are they safe?”

 

Dad looked at me in disbelief. “Are they safe? You’re not going to ask about the life-saving blood transfusion we just did or the fact that you almost died?!?”

 

“Clearly it worked, because I’m alive. Is the team safe?”

 

“The team’s fine,” Mom said. “Don was with them.”

 

“Why didn’t you just ask him my blood type?”

 

“We lost communication with the away team for a few minutes.” How much had I missed?

 

“Were you able to figure out what’s going on with the tech? How were they operating the door and the meta dampeners remotely?”

 

Mom looked down. “No. We still don’t know how they were operating their systems. All we know is they’re definitely trying to get us out of the way.”

 

“Yeah, I can tell that much.” I whipped out my tablet and tried to see if I could figure anything out. But, just as before, there were no digital signals coming from the plant. “Were we able to get anything off of the flip phone?”

 

“No. It was wiped clean.”

 

“Wait, what? It still had some information on it when I looked at it back at the plant.” How had it been remotely wiped clean since then? None of this was adding up. 

 

“You need to lie down and relax.” What, did Dad think I was getting too agitated?

 

“I’ll relax when I’m dead.”

 

Dad looked enraged. “Don’t say that. Do. Not. Do you know how close I got to losing you today?”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“You’re fine now. But I had to watch that nerve agent almost kill you. We weren’t sure I would be able to get the blood to you in time and…” Dad didn’t have to finish that sentence. I knew how he got when someone in his family died. And it wasn’t fun, for anyone.

 

“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

 

“Just promise me it won’t happen again.” 

 

“I can’t promise that. But I’ll try and be more careful next time.”

 

Mom cleared her throat. “Well, there won’t be a next time for you for a while. You probably won’t gain your strength back until you’ve at least had a full night’s rest.” 

 

“Fine. I’ll work the evidence on this side of the field.” Dad raised his eyebrows. “What? Sometimes I can be agreeable.”

 

“That hasn’t been my experience.”

 

“Is Anna up yet?” Don’s voice broke up our father-daughter moment. Mom brought a headset over to my makeshift bedside. 

 

“Don? It’s me.”

 

“Oh, Anna, thank goodness.”

 

“I’m fine. The blood transfusion worked. I’m just sitting here, draining an IV. What’s the report there?”

 

“I’m at STAR Labs, checking on the team’s progress.”

 

“Anything yet?”

 

“They’ve made some progress, but it’s slow.”

 

“Alright, keep me updated.” I switched over to the away team. “How are you guys doing?”

 

“Anna, you’re awake!” Leave it to Dig to look on the bright side. “We haven’t found anything, but we’ll keep looking.”

 

“You mean my T-spheres will keep looking.” 

 

“Curtis?”

 

“Yeah, Little Blondie, this is an open line.” Rene. 

 

“Got it. Stay safe, everyone, we’ll figure this out.” I turned off my side of the comm, and gave the headset back to Mom. She went back to the center console, presumably to keep scanning the building. Dad got closer to me to check on my IV.

 

“How can I let you do this?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“In the future, how can I be a father who’s okay with watching my daughter come this close to death day after day?”

 

“It’s not always like this, you know that.”

 

“That’s not what I meant. When Felicity was trying to stick that needle in me earlier, I was shaking so badly it almost didn’t work. That’s how scared I was, Ryder. I can’t imagine any future where I would let any child of mine live this life.”

 

“There are events that happen that make this work. Things are different in the future.”

 

“No. They can’t be that different. There is no world where I’m okay with this.” And he walked away.

 

What if I told him about his youngest son who almost wasn’t? Or the love of his life having to fight for her life everyday? Would he then understand that his oldest daughter needed to protect all of those people? And that he would have to let her? I had never seen Dad struggle with me being a vigilante, not once. He patched up all my injuries, but all it did was bring us closer together, instead of driving us apart. We had this in common. This was the crux of our relationship. How could the daughter of Oliver Queen be anything else?


	15. Chapter 15

I spent the next hour with Mom, looking through the data that the T-spheres were collecting at the plant. There was nothing of note, besides the fact that the nerve agent I’d been poisoned with had spread out into the air in the plant. It would be good to have Gideon take a look, but she was in Central with Don, so that was out. Besides, if my tablet didn’t pick anything up, I doubted Gideon would. 

 

“So are you from far in the future?” Mom asked, breaking the silence that had permeated since Dad left to join the away team.

 

“I can’t really tell you when I’m from.”

 

“I was just wondering if you haven’t been born yet, or if you’re one of Oliver’s secret children.” Apparently that wound hadn’t healed for Mom yet. I get why Dad did what he did; he just wanted to protect William. 

 

“I haven’t been born yet. And I’m nobody’s secret.”

 

“Got it.” Another pause, but I could tell she was dying to say something.

 

“What?”

 

“I’ve been wondering this ever since 2015. Who taught you to code? Because you’re amazing.”

 

“I learned from one of the world’s best hackers. Taught me everything I know.”

 

“Ah, so Team Arrow gets another hacker in the future. Interesting.”  _ Wow _ . For being one of the smartest people I knew, my mom could sometimes be one of the slowest. 

 

Dinah’s voice came through the comms. “Hey, guys, we found something.” 

 

“What is it?” I asked.

 

“It looks like some kind of transmitter? I don’t really know, I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

 

“Can you get it back here?” asked Mom.

 

Dig spoke next. “No, this thing is bolted solid to the wall. You’ll have to come here and take a look.”

 

“We’ll be right there,” I responded. Mom flicked the comms off.

 

“I’ll go. You won’t.”

 

“Why not? My IV is drained.”

 

“You need solid rest and more to eat. You’re in no condition to go out, and that’s final.” Probably without intending to, she used her Mom voice. After all this time, I was powerless against it. 

 

“Fine. But let me know as soon as you have it figured out.”

 

“Of course.” 

 

Mom left, leaving me with nothing but my thoughts. And they certainly weren’t pleasant.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 170. At this point, Tommy and I spent so much time at STAR Labs that we had practically moved in. No one really said anything about it, especially not Dad. It was good for Tommy, to be surrounded by people who could care for him, and make sure he was keeping up on his studies, even if it was mostly playing around with Cisco in the lab. Plus, Don and Frankie didn’t mind speeding me back to Star City to take care of missions with whatever was left of Team Arrow. 

 

We didn’t see Dad much anymore. Yes, he and Tommy bunked together at STAR Labs, but he usually slept during the day and did who knows what at night. I had long since given up on him doing anything productive, so I let him be. Tommy was a bit more optimistic, but even he had given up hope by this point. 

 

After a tough day in the field, I returned to STAR Labs to report to Cisco what had happened. I couldn’t find him in the Cortex, so I started poking around. Finally, I found him in his tech playroom, working out some calculations on the whiteboard. 

 

“What are you up to?”

 

He jumped away from the board. “Me? Nothing.” 

 

“How is the chemical analysis going?”

 

He sat back down at his work station and shuffled through some papers. “It’s going...uh...it’s going…” He looked behind me to see if anyone was there, and then sheer anger took over his face. “It’s going nowhere!” He flung the papers off the table and stomped his foot.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I haven’t been making progress for months! This is going nowhere! I’m an engineer, not a chemist! What we need is Caitlin or Wells or-” Here he laid his head down on the table in utter defeat.

 

“Barry. You need Barry.”

 

“I need Barry,” Cisco whispered. 

 

“Okay, well, maybe I can hang out here more instead of going out into the field. And Don’s pretty good with biology, maybe he could-”

 

“No, Ryder, you don’t get it. I’ve been at this for 170 days and I’ve made no progress. Zero.”

 

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

 

“Because you come back every day from facing God knows what out there, and you tell me it’s getting better. The streets are getting safer. So how can I turn around and say that there’s no hope? That there’s no fixing this?”

 

“The streets aren’t getting safer! We just wanted you to think things were getting better so you’d be encouraged!” 

 

Cisco and I looked at each other for the longest time, then shared a laugh. A real, side-splitting laugh. We had duped each other into thinking there was a way out. But it was hopeless. It had always been hopeless. 

 

When we had calmed down from our nihilistic laughter, I spoke up. “So we agree that there’s no fixing this.”

 

“We do.”

 

“I wish this had never happened.” 

 

Cisco arched his eyebrows at me. “What if it hadn’t?”

 

I was scared to ask, but did anyway. “What are you talking about?”

 

He walked up to the white board, and I looked at it closer now. They were time travel calculations, twenty-two years to the past. 

 

“I’ve calculated when the water supply would’ve had to be contaminated with LP. Obviously, we know the source is in either Star City or Central City. I believe there is about a one week window where it had to happen.” He circled a few dates.

 

“Cisco, how long have you been working on this?”

 

“Since I figured out I couldn’t cure it.” 

 

I paused to consider. Yes, it would be destroying everything I stood for as a Traveler, but what was the point of proclaiming myself the savior of my city if I wouldn’t do whatever it took to defend it? 

 

I sat down. “Tell me everything you have.”

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was interrupted from my day dreaming by Mom on the comms.

 

“Anna, I’m sending you the specs of the object now. See what you can make of it.”

 

“Copy, Overwatch.”

 

I took a look at the device. It looked like some kind of transmitter or receiver, but for what kind of signal was beyond me. Then I saw it. The chip. I had only seen this once before in my life. I knew who had designed it.

 

My grandfather.


	16. Chapter 16

How had Noah Kuttler gotten himself involved in this? I didn’t even know where he was in 2017. My briefings had only contained information about criminals I could possibly run into. I knew all about Savitar, Prometheus, even Cayden James and the Thinker. I could tell you all there was to know about Malcolm Merlyn’s whereabouts, but I had nothing on the Calculator.

 

A quick computer search showed me he was currently a fugitive, whereabouts unknown. Well, clearly he was nearby. But what was he doing trying to poison the water supply? The guy had an evil streak, but this seemed downright maniacal. 

 

I knew what the tech did, of course. It was basically a shield. It would keep us from accessing any of the tech in that building, even from within. Only someone who knew the shield was there would be able to pass through, and that was only if they could get through the intense firewalls. Mom had no idea such a thing existed, and I doubt she could’ve gotten through my grandfather’s coding anyway. But I thought this device was a few years away from being invented. Clearly I was wrong.

 

What to tell Mom? The truth? That her father was somehow involved in a scheme to poison all of the water in the city? What good would it be for her to know it was him? My instinct was to lie and keep it from her. What she didn't know couldn’t hurt her. Then I remembered how hurt she looked when she had figured out I was Dad’s daughter. This wasn’t a point in history where Felicity Smoak would appreciate being lied to. The truth it was, then.

 

“Overwatch, I looked over the schematics.”

 

“And?”

 

“I recognize them. They basically make tech invisible. No way we could’ve broken through.”

 

“Something that like that wouldn’t have kept me from saving you. There’s just no way.”

 

“What if it was designed by your father?”

 

A long pause.

 

“That man is not my father. He lost that right.”

 

“Okay, well, I know these schematics. They’re Noah Kuttler’s.”

 

Dad chimed in. “So you’re saying he’s involved in this somehow?”

 

“I don’t know. Our culprit could’ve stolen them, or maybe Noah didn’t know-”

 

“No, he knew. He once tried to take down the subway system. This isn’t beyond him.”

 

Dad tried reasoning with her. “I don’t know, Noah helped us out last time-”

 

“Only to save his own skin. He’s evil, plain and simple.”

 

I was with Dad. This didn’t seem like something Noah would do, but it’s not like I really knew him. I had only ever “met” him once, and that wasn’t even face to face. Mom knew him better than almost anyone else, and certainly better than Dad. I guessed I would trust her. Noah Kuttler was our man.

 

“I’ll start a search to see if I can track down Kuttler. He may be good, but even he can’t fight my tech.”

 

Dad chimed in again. “Before you do that, Anna, have you had anything to eat since you’ve woken up?”

 

“Are you serious right now?”

 

“I’m very serious. You need some more glucose in your system.” Since when did this version of Dad even know what glucose was? 

 

“Fine. I’ll eat something.”

 

“There’s some sandwiches in the fridge,” Dig offered. Great.

 

“Is there a mass conspiracy to get me to eat a sandwich now?”

 

“Just don’t want you passing out on us again, Little Blondie.”

 

“Ooh, I like that nickname.”  _ Yes, Aunt Thea, encourage him. _

 

“I’m shutting down these comms if you guys are going to act like this.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

An hour later, the team was back, and I didn’t have any leads on Kuttler. Mom stepped in to help out, but she wasn’t able to do anything my tablet couldn’t do. I took the opportunity to excuse myself and grab my blood monitor. I snuck into the bathroom and pricked myself. 99.91%. Turns out the blood transfusion from Dad had done nothing, but it’s not like I expected it would. I steeled myself again, and called Don.

 

“Hey, champ, how’s it going?”

 

“We made some more progress. We’re maybe...halfway there?” There was some shouting in the background. “Oh, apparently we’re 53% there and that shouldn’t be underestimated.”

 

“Of course. How silly of me.”

 

“How are things going there?”

 

“It turns out there was some of the Calculator’s tech in that plant.”

 

“Seriously? This doesn’t seem like his MO.”

 

“Those were my thoughts. But, I don’t know, how well do we really know the guy? Mom doesn’t seem to doubt that it’s him.”

 

“I guess. Have you been able to track him down?”

 

“Working on it. His hiding is one thing that apparently never changes.”

 

“Right. You know, we could really use your help here. Some motivation or at least a kick in the pants.”

 

“Got it. Will you come pick me up?”

 

“You know it. See you in a few.” I hung up. Don was right, neither of us knew Kuttler that well. But that one time had been all I needed.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 12. Almost two weeks had gone by. Tommy still hadn’t stopped crying, and William hadn’t left our sides. Dad still wasn’t talking much, but he was still getting up in the morning. Dig and Aunt Lyla were wrapped up with ARGUS. I was doing whatever I could to keep the streets safe, just me and Aunt Thea taking on the world. As I was returning to the Bunker from a lonely patrol, I overheard Dig and Dad talking in the back. Since they hadn’t heard me come in, I decided it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to do a little eavesdropping.

 

“It’s not fair, John! We needed her! We need her! And she’s not here! She’s their mother!!!”

 

“You think Felicity wanted to leave you? She was doing everything possible to stay! You know how hard she fought!”

 

“She was just getting better, John, she was going to be okay…” Here Dad broke off into a sob. Maybe this wasn’t a conversation for me to overhear.

 

“No one knew. No one could’ve known.”

 

“I love her so much, John, and I can’t...I can’t be here if she’s not.”

 

“You can’t think like that, man. You need to be a father to your kids, they need you.” There was a silence before Dig spoke again. “Speaking of fathers, have you talked to Kuttler?” Kuttler? Who was that? I had never heard that name before.

 

“Him? He doesn’t deserve to know. Besides, he’s probably already found out.”

 

“That may be true, but you still need to make sure. If it were Ryder-”

 

“If it were Ryder, I would’ve been here the entire time. I wouldn’t have left, not for a second.”

 

“You need to do this, man.”

 

“I have no way of contacting him.”

 

“Ryder can find him.” 

 

I walked into their field of vision now, pretending like I had just walked in. “I can find who now?”

 

“There’s someone who needs to know...about your mom.” Oh. 

 

“Okay, I bet I can find them.” I walked over to the central console and brought up our best location software. “What’s their name?”

 

“Noah Kuttler.” I was able to find out some info on him pretty quickly. He was a cyber-terrorist and a criminal.

 

“Why do you want to find this guy? What’s his connection to mom?”

 

“Don’t worry about it. Just find him.” 

 

It took a while, but I was able to find him lurking around on the dark web, and sent him a message to contact me. It wasn’t exactly safe, but Dad seemed desperate, despite his initial reluctance. Kuttler called back.

 

“Hello? Is this Oliver Queen?” I flipped on the voice modulator, and gestured for Dad to take over. He flipped the voice modulator off.

 

“Yes, Noah, it’s me.”

 

“And to what do I owe the pleasure?”

 

“No pleasure, Noah. I wanted to tell you about….about Felicity.”

 

“Oh, Oliver, I already know about that. You think someone with my resources wouldn’t?”

 

“You could at least pretend you’re sad.”

 

“Of course I am, Oliver. She was my daughter.” 

 

“What?” I exclaimed. Daughter? This was Mom’s dad? But he was dead! 

 

“Oh, and who is this with you, Oliver?”

 

“I’m his daughter!”

 

“Oh, marvelous, I didn’t realize I had a granddaughter. Tell me, what help were you to my daughter? Hmm?”

 

Dig had to physically restrain me from attacking the computer.

 

“I just called to let you know, Noah. You can go rot for all I care.” Dad cut off the connection. 

 

“Was that really my grandfather?”

 

Dad sighed and ran his hands over his face. “He’s your mother’s biological father, yes. But he’s not part of this family.”

 

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

 

“I think he speaks for himself. He’s dead to us.” 

 

I spent my spare time for the next few weeks becoming the foremost expert of Noah Kuttler in the country. I knew enough to have him put away for a lifetime. But a imprisoning a cyberterrorist was not, and could not be, on my list of priorities. I put him out of my mind, and focused on whatever was left of the future.


	17. Chapter 17

Don arrived, with relief on his face. “I’ve been worried about you.”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“I’d feel a lot better if Gideon did a quick scan.” He held up his watch, but I shoved his arm aside.

 

“I said I’m fine. We have to get going.” 

 

After Don had sped me back to STAR Labs, I found myself in the middle of the world’s most disastrous sleepover. Dr. Brand was hunched over a notebook, seemingly doodling; Dr. Albert was across from her, clearly sleeping; Mr. Allen was sitting in the corner eating pizza at a truly lethargic speed; Dr. Wells and Cisco were nowhere to be found. There were empty pizza boxes and crushed energy drink cans strewn about, as well as probably every whiteboard in STAR Labs shoved in every empty nook and cranny. I pulled Don out into the hallway.

 

“I thought you said it was going well.”

 

“I also said they needed a kick in the pants.” 

 

“Where are Cisco and Wells?”

 

“They were fighting, so Barry sent them to the speed lab to sort out their differences.”

 

“Okay, you convince the three in there to get some proper rest so they can have actual useful active hours. I’ll go check on Cisco and Wells.”

 

I went into the speed lab, expecting the worst. Cisco wasn’t known for having great relationship with Wellses. Instead, I found them hard at work on something on the computer.

 

“Hey, guys, how’s it going?”

 

Dr. Wells shushed me without even looking up at me. Cisco looked up at me and quickly responded, “We think we got something. Don’t interfere with our process.” An alarm went off. “Go figure out what that is.”

 

I went back to the Cortex to see what the problem was. As far as I knew, Central City was safe from all meta threats for the next three days. I scanned the monitors, looking for the source of the problem. Looks like some giant unidentified object just landed in Central City. Wait, I recognized that shape.

 

The Waverider.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 177. Team Arrow and Team Flash were in agreement that Team Flashback’s mission was a go. Just as we were about to go in for another team briefing, I pulled Cisco aside.

 

“You know who would be really great to have on the team?”

 

“Yes. But they’re dead.”

 

“That’s not who I meant. The Legends.”

 

“Yeah, the OG time travel crew. I’ll gather the others and give them a call.”

 

“Actually, can we keep this between us?”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because if they say no, I’m afraid someone might kill them.”

 

“Good point.”

 

Cisco contacted the Legends, and we met them at the STAR Labs hangar outside of town. Sara and Dr. Palmer got off the ship.

 

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

 

“I told the team this was just a pitstop. I know what you’re going to ask, and I’m surprised you didn’t ask sooner,” Sara said.

 

“How do you know what I’m going to ask? Is it because you’re from the future?” Cisco asked.

 

“No, it’s because we’ve been trying to work out the calculations associated with the Event for just as long as you have,” Dr. Palmer answered.

 

“You still haven’t give us your answer,” I pointed out.

 

“No.” Sara said.

 

“No?” Cisco and I replied. 

 

“Time is meant to be protected, not tampered with. You know that.”

 

“Did you even look at what the ramifications would be?” I asked.

 

“No. I don’t need that temptation. My answer is final.” As she turned on her heel to leave, I called out after her.

 

“Don’t you want to save your father?”

 

She turned to face me again. “You think that’s what this is about? I have to accept that people like my father and my sister died for the greater good. We can’t just go around undoing things we don’t like. You know how many people died in World War II? Tens of millions. But no one’s asking me to undo that.”

 

“This isn’t what’s supposed to happen.” Cisco begged.

 

“Why not?” Dr. Palmer asked.

 

“Because it can’t be,” Cisco said. 

 

Sara sighed. “You do what you feel you have to do. We’ll do the same.” And she finally turned and walked back onto the ship. 

 

“Well, that could’ve gone better,” Cisco finally said. 

 

The Legends were not people to make enemies of, yet somehow I felt we had just done it.

 

\---------------------------------------------------

 

“Don?” I called over the PA. He was by my side immediately. “The Legends are here.”

 

“Here? You mean here here?”

 

“Yep. In Central City right now.”

 

“Any idea which Legends we’re dealing with?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“We could just ignore them?”

 

“And have them running around mucking things up? I don’t think so. We’ll face them head-on.”

 

“You feeling up for this?”

 

“It’s what we trained for.”

 

“Right. Gideon?”

 

“Yes, Don?”

 

“You still remember the Omega Protocol?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Good.” He took a look at where the Waverider was, and sped us off toward it. We arrived at an abandoned parking lot near the docks. I watched as the full crew came out to greet us: Sara, Dr. Palmer, Professor Stein, Jax, Mick, Amaya, and Nate. Made sense that the 2017 crew would return to 2017. 

 

“Who are you?” Sara called out to us. She was right to notice us, since we were both in our gear. I threw back my hood and took off my mask, and Don pulled his cowl back.

 

“There’s nothing to worry about, Sara. We’re friends. I’m on Team Arrow, he’s on Team Flash.”

 

“We know those people, and you don’t quite fit the bill,” Dr. Palmer responded.

 

“You don’t know us yet. We’re Travelers that you’re going to meet in the future.”

 

“So you people are other time travellers?” Professor Stein asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“So what are you doing here?” asked Jax. “Were you trying to prevent the aberration?”

 

“Which aberration was that?” asked Don.

 

“The thing with the exploding building,” Mick replied. Okay, so we may have technically caused that, making us an aberration. Great.  _ At least they don’t know why we’re really here _ .

 

“Look, if you just let us explain-”

 

“All I know is we’re looking for the time pirates that blew up that building, and we also happen to be tracking a murderous speedster throughout the timeline. You two seem like a good place to start.” Nate steeled up. Professor Stein and Jax clasped hands, and Sara raised her escrima sticks. So much for talking.

 

We had a strategy for this fight. I whipped out my tablet to disengage the ATOM suit while Don quickly knocked out Amaya, Mick, and Sara. So far, so good. I began engaging Nate to keep him occupied while Don took care of Firestorm. That mostly meant I dodged Nate’s blows to make sure I didn’t get hit while Don created a twister around Firestorm, essentially starving him of oxygen and his ability to create fire. Then there was another KO for them. Finally, Don started running away from me. Specifically, 5.3 miles away. I heard the crack of thunder, and jumped out of the way as Don hit Nate with a supersonic punch, breaking through his steel and making it easy for me to finish him off with a punch of my own.

 

Without discussion, Don started dragging bodies into the Waverider and strapping them into their seats.

 

“Gideon?”

 

The AI popped out of the central consul of the ship. “Yes, Ms. Queen?”

 

“I need you to institute the Omega Protocol.”

 

“Are you sure, Ms. Queen? The team will be awfully angry with you.”

 

“I don’t see us as having any choice. And tell them I’m sorry.”

 

“Yes, Ms. Queen. You probably want to evacuate the ship now.”

 

Don sped me away, and we watched as the Waverider flew up into the sky and out of 2017 completely. 

 

“And you’re sure they’re locked out of these days forever?” Don asked.

 

“Yep. They’re going to be pretty pissed once they figure out what the heck is going on.”


	18. Chapter 18

 

We got back to the cortex to find Mrs. West-Allen hunched over the computer monitors. “Were the Legends just here?”

 

“Yeah,” Don responded.

 

“Are they here to help us with the mission?”

 

“Not exactly,” I responded. “But we had a little heart-to-heart and they decided it was best to leave.”

 

Before Mrs. West-Allen could ask any more questions, Mr. Allen came striding into the room. “We’re close!” 

 

“You’re close to reverse engineering the chemical?”

 

“Yep! Now that Cisco and Harry have a better idea of the protein structure, we’re on a roll.”

 

“Hey, babe,” Mrs. West-Allen said, “there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” I gave her a sharp look. I didn’t want her potentially revealing Don’s identity to Mr. Allen.

 

“What’s up?” Mr. Allen asked.

 

“People are worried. That building explosion is being ruled a purposeful attack, and the Flash wasn’t there to save them. They think you’re abandoning them.”

 

“What? That’s crazy! People have to know I can’t be in all places at once.”

 

“I know. And I’m trying to sway their opinions, saying that Kid Flash was there, but they’re starting to think you’re gone.”

 

Considering Mr. Allen was going to actually be gone in a few days, I didn’t think it was worth the effort to correct the public. The Flash was unavailable, plain and simple. Mr. Allen turned to me.

 

“Look, I get that what we’re doing is important for the future and all, but the rest of the team can help with the molecule. I need to be out on the streets, protecting people.”

 

“No, you can’t. We need all hands on deck here,” Don said. Mrs. West-Allen turned to look at Don.

 

“You’re sure?”

 

“Positive.”

 

She nodded. “Alright, Barry, if he says it’s what you need to do, then it is.” Apparently Mr. Allen was just as whipped in 2017, as he bowed his head and nodded.

 

“Okay. I’ll get back to work.” He turned and left. Don breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad that that didn’t get any messier than it already was.

 

Mrs. West-Allen pointed a finger at us. “You owe me one.”

 

My comm beeped. Mom’s voice came into my ear. “Anna, we found Kuttler.”

 

“We’ll be right there.” I nodded at Don, and away we sped.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Where is he?” I asked as soon as I arrived at the Bunker.

 

“He’s currently staying at the Grand Hotel here in Star City.” A fancy hotel? It was hardly low profile, but maybe he wasn’t trying to be.

 

“Okay, let’s get going.” I thought about the best combination of people. “Felicity and Curtis, I know he’s teamed up with you before, so you two will come with me.”

 

“What about me?” Dad asked.

 

“I don’t think you’re his favorite person. This isn’t going to be a fight, so we’ll be fine.” I don’t know who I was trying to convince, but I thought I sounded pretty self-assured.

 

I turned to Don. “Make sure to get some rest, alright?”

 

“Yes, ma’am.”

 

We took Felicity’s car to the hotel. We knew which room Kuttler was in, so we simply approached the door and knocked. I had myself and Curtis stand to the side, so that when Kuttler looked through the peephole, he’d only see his daughter. After a few moments, he opened the door.

 

“Well, you were the last person I was expecting to see here.”

 

“Save it, Noah,” I said, letting myself into the room in the process. I found a pretty advanced set-up, with maybe a dozen monitors scattered throughout the room, all hooked up to a central processor. He was certainly up to something here.

 

“Oh, and who are you?”

 

“Someone who’s come to stop you.”

 

“Stop me from doing what?”

 

I started examining his displays. He was definitely doing business on the dark web. It looked like he was selling viruses. No wonder he could afford such a fancy hotel room. It looked like a suite with all of the amenities.

 

“Your conducting of illegal business on the dark web, for one. But, more importantly, your plan to poison the whole city.”

 

“Yeah, we’re onto you,” Curtis added unnecessarily. 

 

“My plan to poison the city? Believe me, if I had such a plan, you’d never find out about it. Felicity, what are friends rambling on about?”

 

Mom stepped up. “We found your tech in the old Rickman Industries fertilizer plant. We know you left that phone there to set us up. And we know you hired those thugs to poison the city’s water supply.”

 

“I sell my tech to many well-connected people. I don’t know how it got into the hands of Rickman Industries, but you needn’t concern yourself with it.”

 

No, this wasn’t adding up. That tech was advanced-so advanced, in fact, that I thought it was yet to be invented.  _ What if it hadn’t been? _ What if it was a prototype? Surely, Noah wouldn’t have sold that off. But lent it to a friend, that was something else.

 

“Your network blocking transmitter prototype. Who has it?”

 

Noah turned to me. “Very good, young lady. Yes, that piece of technology is now in the hands of a very...persuasive individual.”

 

I ran up to him, grabbed his neck, and forced him up against the wall. “You’re going to tell me who you gave it to.”

 

“Now, now, no need to get feisty. I don’t know the identity of this individual. They contacted me through an intermediate, and only referred to themselves as ‘Mr. X.’”

 

“You can let him go now, Anna,” Curtis suggested. I did.

 

“How do we know we can trust you?”

 

“What reason do I have to poison the city? I live here.”

 

“What reason did you have to blow up the subway?” Mom asked.

 

“Money. Just like there was money to loan my device to Mr. X. But there’s no profit in poisoning the city.”

 

I turned to Mom. She was the Kuttler expert around here. I believed him. It didn’t make sense for Noah to kill millions of people. Killing a specific person? Maybe, if it suited his purposes. 

 

“Okay. I believe you. Give us everything you have on this Mr. X, and we’ll leave.”

 

“Oh, honey, I’m not going to make it that easy for you. As much as I hate to cut this family reunion short,” and he started directly at me, “you have some hacking to do, I think.”

 

Mom narrowed her eyes at Kuttler, but eventually left, with Curtis following. 

 

“Oh, and honey?” I turned and found Kuttler staring at me again. “I’d be careful if I were you. You don’t want to make too much of an impression while you’re here.”

 

I didn’t know what he meant, but I felt chills up and down my spine as I was leaving.


	19. Chapter 19

We got back to the Bunker, where Dad was waiting for us. “So, what did you find on Kuttler?”

 

Mom responded. “Not much. Apparently he lent the technology to someone called Mr. X. He claims to be in the dark about any plans to poison the city.” 

 

“I don’t believe it. He knows more than he’s saying.”

 

“Maybe, but I’m not exactly his favorite person. He has no reason to help me.”

 

I went to go check in on Don. He was sleeping soundly, and I didn’t want to disturb him. I grabbed my blood monitor from my bag, and tested myself again. 99.92%. At least the rate wasn’t accelerating. That wasn’t even possible. I thought back to when I first started using a monitor.

 

\------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 83. We were all hanging out in the Cortex when Cisco called us down to his lab.

 

“What do you have for us?” Frankie asked when we got down there.

 

He held up a rectangular device with a small needle at the end. “I’ve perfected an LP monitor.”

 

“How does it work?” Don asked.

 

“It tests a subjects blood for how close they are to reaching the Lethality Point.”

 

“Can it determine if someone is immune?” I asked.

 

“Yes. Those with immunity will register at 0% as their body was able to destroy the LP. ”

 

“So we can start testing people for immunity, and see how far along other people are from dying?” Grandpa Joe asked.

 

“You got it.”

 

“Cisco, this is huge!” Frankie exclaimed. “How long before we can start testing people?”

 

“Slow your roll, speed princess. Do we even want to use it?”

 

“Why not?” I asked.

 

“Because we would be telling people, kids, that they had a fatal disease and have no way of curing them. All we’d be doing is giving them a expiration date.”

 

“Or the peace of mind that they’re not going to die.”

 

“I’m not sure this is ethical.”

 

“Well we at least have to give people the choice.”

 

Dad spoke up, yet again reminding us he was in the room. “People should know.”

 

“Exactly,” I stated.

 

“Look, let’s all take some time to think about this. It’ll take me time to make enough monitors to be useful, anyway.”

 

Everyone returned to the Cortex, but I lingered. I examined the device. Don and Frankie were confirmed to be immune. They had been alive the time it would take to reach their Lethality Points, and both lived through it. I was a bit younger. A few months shy of my own lethality point. After looking around to make sure no one else was there, I grabbed the device. I pricked myself, and winced as it took a drop of blood. I glanced at the display.

 

99.56%.

 

I wasn’t immune. And I was close to reaching my own Lethality Point.

 

“Hey, Ryder-” Cisco strode into the room and saw me. “What are you doing?”

 

Before I could react, he had grabbed the monitor from my hand. “Cisco, don’t-”

 

He looked up at me with wide eyes. “You’re not immune.” 

 

I hung my head. “I guess not.”

 

“Ryder, I’m so sorry, I-”

 

“Don’t worry. We’ll find a cure before I reach my Lethality Point. Just don’t tell anyone.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Because it will only worry them. We all have enough to worry about without my impending death.”

 

“I get not telling Oliver or Tommy, but what about Don? You guys tell each other everything.”

 

“I guess now we don’t.” I didn’t want to keep secrets from him, but I didn’t need him hovering over me all the time like I knew he would. “I’d like to have a personal monitor, if you don’t mind.”

 

“Yeah, I can have one ready for you in a couple of days.”

 

“Thanks Cisco. For everything.”

 

I walked out of the lab with my head held high, but on the inside I felt like I was breaking apart. Of course I knew there was a 50/50 chance I would die because of LP, but to have it confirmed was something else entirely. It meant that I was more incentivised than ever to find the cure. For Don, for Frankie, for Tommy. For me.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I walked back out to see what Mom had come up with on Mr. X.

 

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed.

 

I ran up to her. “What?”

 

“Kuttler just sent me everything he has on Mr. X. Like, everything.” I leaned over Mom’s shoulder and saw that she had been sent several files. “It’ll take awhile to go through everything on here. Most of it’s encrypted. Think you can help me out?”

 

I pulled up a chair. “Absolutely.” 

 

Dad peered over our shoulders. “Why would Kuttler send you all of this?”

 

“Maybe he regretted being so unhelpful earlier?” Mom suggested.

 

“No, it’s more than that,” I countered. “If his fatherly instincts were kicking in, he would’ve been more forthcoming earlier. This is something else.”

 

“You’re thinking he couldn’t give us the information earlier?” Dad asked.

 

“I’m just saying what if he’s being monitored? He’s not at that hotel out of indulgence, but as a prisoner.”

 

“It’s an interesting theory. I just don’t know anyone who could trap my father without his permission.” Mom was probably right. But what he said about not making an impression would make sense if we were being watched.

 

“Why else would he send us everything in an encrypted format?” I asked.   
  


“Because he just wants me to prove myself, as always.” 

 

“Well, we won’t know until we get through this, so I guess we better get started.”

 

Breaking through the encryptions would be difficult, but I had future tech. I set up my tablet to do the hacking for me, and set off to join Dad in the training area. I needed the work-out. Without a word, he turned toward me and started throwing punches, which I ducked. After sparring for a while, Dad held his hands up.

 

“You’ve gotten better.”

 

“I’ve been training hard for this mission.”

 

“It shows.” Dad grabbed a towel and started wiping his face off. “Hey, I was wondering something.”

 

I grabbed my own towel. “What’s up?”

 

“Does Don not like me?”

 

I had to laugh. “Seriously?”

 

“Yeah, we were talking while you were away, and he seemed...distant.”

 

“Don really respects you, that’s not the problem.”

 

“So you’re saying there’s a problem?”

 

I hesitated. “You don’t really like him.”

 

Dad held his hands up again. “I like him just fine.”

 

“No, I don’t mean you-you, I mean-”

 

“Me in the future.”

 

“Yeah. You don’t like that I’m dating a meta.”

 

“Wait-what? I have no problem with metas. Dinah’s a meta, Barry’s a meta, even Cisco.”

 

“You think that because he’s a meta, it makes him an inferior fighter. Without his speed, he doesn’t have as much training. And you’ve always held that against him.”

 

“Oh. But can Don protect you?”

 

“I can protect myself, and Don to boot. You never have to worry about me.”

 

“I’m always going to worry about you, now and in the future. But I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

Dad walked toward Mom, and I followed. “Any leads?”

 

“Nothing so far. The stuff I have encrypted is just times and locations that Kuttler met this Mr. X. They had quite a few meetings, actually. But nothing on who Mr. X actually is.”

 

I checked my tablet and searched through the data it had sorted through. “Here’s something-it’s a list of Mr. X’s property holdings. I’ll cross-reference it to see if we can come up with a name.”

 

My tablet quickly ran the search. Even though Kuttler’s data indicated that Mr. X held all these properties, the Internet suggested they were owned by a variety of people and corporations. 

 

“Wait-I recognize that name.” Dad said.

 

I glanced at the listing he pointed at. “Rickman Industries. They owned that fertilizer factory. Is it possible this Mr. X owns Rickman Industries?”

 

I searched for Rickman Industries on the Internet and the dark web, but I came up empty. Everything indicated that Rickman Industries was its own company. None of the companies Kuttler’s data claimed that Mr. X had a hand in were related in any way.

 

Mom put her head in her hands. “This makes no sense. These data are wrong.” I was tending to agree with Mom, but it made no sense for him to send us misleading information. It’s not like it was throwing us off, it was just wasting our time. 

 

Don came into the room. “Guys, Team Flash thinks they have something.”

 

“Great. Then let’s get going.”


	20. Chapter 20

Don sped me to STAR Labs. Everyone was in the cortex, buzzing about their latest discovery.

 

“Anna!” Cisco called out. “We got it!”

 

“Really?” Best news of the day.

 

“Well, I mean, Barry and Julian and Harry got it, mostly, but I was there.”

 

“Thank you, Ramon,” Dr. Wells said.

 

“We were able to reverse engineer the chemical and discover what the molecule is in its raw form.”

 

Mr. Allen typed a few commands into the computer, and the molecule came up on the monitors. “Ta-da!”

 

I walked as close as I could to the monitors and looked at it. I didn’t recognize it. At all. “So this is what is being put into the water sources?”

 

Dr. Albert joined me at the monitor. “As close as we can tell. It’s not a known molecule, and it certainly doesn’t occur naturally. It would have to be synthetically produced.”

 

So someone was making raw LP on purpose. This matched with what we knew from Kuttler. It didn’t explain why or who, but it was a start. 

 

“Okay, we need something to neutralize this chemical.” Curing LP wasn’t possible, but if we could neutralize it while it was aqueous, we had a chance of stopping the Event before it happened. That is, if we couldn’t stop Mr. X’s plan in the first place. “It’s the best back-up plan we’ve got.”

 

Cisco spoke up. “Whoa, we just came up with this molecule and now you want to know how to un-do it?”

 

“Yes, please?” Don asked.

 

Cisco laughed humorlessly. “Well, if you’re asking so nicely…”

 

“Hey, where’s Dr. Brand?” I asked.

 

Mr. Allen looked down. “She and Harry had difficulty working together so…”

 

“Oh, got it.” She probably couldn't stand working with her dead boyfriend’s doppelganger. I couldn’t blame her. Working with people that looked like your dead loved ones was hard. A thought occurred to me. “I’m not asking too much of you, am I?”

 

I was met with downcast eyes and silence. I turned to Don, who nodded his head slightly.  _ Oh _ . They had just come off the whole Mrs. West-Allen and Savitar deal, so I guess they were tired. But I really couldn’t have them slow down. They only had two days to find out how to neutralize raw LP. 

 

Mrs. West-Allen walked in. “Sorry, guys, I was just going over some details for HR’s funeral.” She looked at all the mopey faces surrounding her. “What’s wrong in here?”

 

No one said anything, so I replied, “They’re all exhausted, and I don’t blame them. I’m asking for a lot.”

 

Mrs. West-Allen turned to face her hoard of scientists. “I know it’s been rough for the last week around here, but when has that ever stopped us? You guys worked out the Speed Force bazooka, and I know you can work this out as well. I’ll bring in some coffee from Jitters, and we can work in shifts, ya? That way everyone can get some rest but we’ll know that someone’s always making progress.” 

 

Everyone nodded. Leave it to Mrs. West-Allen to inspire the team like that. No wonder she was team leader for a while. Once I uploaded the molecule to my tablet, I signaled to Don that we should head out, and leave the geniuses to their experimenting. I knew they would figure it out. They always did.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 180. Cisco had finalized the mission details, now it was just a matter of getting the rest of the team to sign off on it. He called everyone together. “Everyone” was kind of a loose term nowadays; the combination of Team Arrow and Team Flash didn’t amount to much. 

 

Once everyone was in the Cortex, Cisco made his big announcement. “We have a plan to undo the effects of LP.”

 

There were murmurs of excitement all around. Dig asked, “Wait, I thought the plan was to develop a cure?”

 

Cisco held up a finger. “That was the plan. However, that plan has, well, terminated.”

 

“What do you mean, terminated?” asked Grandpa Joe. 

 

“Don, Tommy, and I have done everything we could, but there’s just no way for us to formulate a cure, or even reverse engineer the chemical.”

 

Frankie looked stunned. “How long did you know this wasn’t going to work?”

 

I stepped up to defend Cisco. “Just long enough to formulate this new plan.”

 

“Exactly,” Cisco said. “And this new plan is going to be it, I swear.”

 

“What is it Cisco?” Don asked.

 

“We go back in time and prevent the Event.”

 

Everyone fell into shocked silence. I’m sure it had crossed everyone’s mind at one point, but no one had ever vocalized it. It was against the rules we usually played by. It was against everything we had been taught. 

 

“I thought we weren’t allowed to do that.” Dig was right, under normal conditions.

 

I stepped up again. “Desperate times. This one event could be undone, unlike thousands of other catastrophes that this world has seen. So why not do it?”

 

“Because we have no idea of the ramifications, for one,” Don said. Was he really going to speak out against me? “Even if we avoid a paradox and destroy time, we still would have to deal with the fact that we’d be changing the entire timeline. And we can’t undo that.”

 

“You’re right. But explain to me what we have to lose at this point.” I looked around the room to emphasize my point. Too many people were missing from it.

 

“We’re not gods,” Mrs. West-Allen proclaimed as she stepped into the room, probably coming in late from some assignment. “It’s not our job to fool with the timeline, not like this.”

 

Grandpa Joe turned to her. “Sweetie, think about what they would want.”

 

“I am thinking about that, and I think they would want us to keep the timeline intact.”

 

“At the risk of hundreds of millions of lives?” Frankie asked her mom.

 

“You mess with time, and time will mess back. You know that,” Mrs. West-Allen chastised her daughter. 

 

Dig turned to Cisco. “How would it even work, anyway? If we were to do it?”

 

“I’ve isolated a range of dates where the LP could’ve been introduced. We send a team back there to prevent it from happening. We can’t neutralize the water or inoculate the potential victims, so that’s the only way I see to do it.”

 

“Unless Mr. Allen figures it out,” Tommy offered. 

 

“Tommy, what are you talking about?” Cisco asked.

 

“You’re always saying Mr. Allen would probably be able to help you crack the code. Well, you’ll have access to him in the past.”

 

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea, kid,” Cisco replied. “It would mean he wouldn’t be able to guard the water supply, though.”

 

An idea began forming in my head. “Team Arrow is pretty big in 2017, right, Dad?” Dad slowly lifted his head, took his time to comprehend the question, and then nodded. “So Team Arrow could take care of all the physical mission work, while Team Flash worked on the cerebral portion.”

 

“That’s not a bad plan. I think it could work.” At least Cisco and I were on the same page. “Let’s take a vote. If anyone disagrees, we won’t do it. All in favor?” Everyone but Mrs. West-Allen raised her hand. I was surprised that Dad was taking the initiative to consider the plan and vote for it, but he didn’t know I was planning to go with. 

 

“I can’t condone this,” Mrs. West-Allen said, and then wandered off into the hallway.

 

“Let me go talk to her,” Grandpa Joe said. After he left, Cisco began explaining the plan to the team. He would need Mrs. West-Allen’s and Dad’s input on the timeline, but he could at least narrow Team Flash’s involvement to a four day timespan within the timeframe he had hypothesized. Dad didn’t seem very forthcoming on other details, but I knew I could get them out of him in private. The only question now was who would go, assuming Mrs. West-Allen came around. 

 

Finally, Mrs. West-Allen and Grandpa Joe emerged from the hallway. “I’m not going to pretend I think this is a good idea, but I won’t stop you from doing it.”

 

Cisco’s face lit up. “Then Mission Flashback is a go.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Back in the Bunker, everything seemed to be under control. Mom was busy with the encryptions, and my tablet was running as well. It was getting late, and most of the team had already left. Just as I was about to approach Mom and check on things, Dig came out of the elevator, with a little toddler.  _ Could it be? _

 

“Hey, I’m sorry to spring this on you guys, but Lyla got called in on a last-minute assignment, and the babysitter’s busy. I thought I’d bring the guy down here while I helped out.” 

 

Mom smiled. “Of course. You know little John is always welcome.”

 

Don turned to me with a worried expression, and I tried to be okay. I really did. But I just couldn’t. Not this time. I quickly got out of there, as far away as possible. As I was retreating, I heard Dig say, “Did I do something wrong?” I hoped Don would be gracious enough to answer for me, because nothing was going to stop my tears from flowing now. 


	21. Chapter 21

By the time I was twelve, school was beyond boring to me. I knew all the good stuff already, but I couldn’t skip grades unless I could get my English grade up. That was never going to happen. Most of the time, John and I switched homework assignments. He’s do my repetitive seventh grade assignments, and I’d do his calculus. It was a good balance.

 

One particularly unexciting day, I was sitting in the back of my English classroom, daydreaming about improving my facial recognition coding, when I saw a car pull up outside out of the corner of my eye. I recognized the truck as the one John had gotten for his sixteenth birthday. The choice in front of me was clear: stay in this stinking classroom all day, or go have an adventure. Okay, so there wasn’t much of a choice at all. I raised my hand. 

 

“Yes, Ms. Queen?”

 

“May I go to the bathroom?”

 

Mr. Lacher rolled his eyes and then nodded his head. I grabbed my backpack and headed for the classroom door. “Ms. Queen, there is no need to bring your bag.”

 

“Uh, lady issues?” 

 

Mr. Lacher paled a bit, and then dismissed me with his hand. I almost ran out of the back door of the school, I was so excited. I hoisted myself into the passenger seat of John’s truck, throwing my bag in the back. 

 

“Hello, Ms. Queen. And how is Mr. Lacher this afternoon?”

 

“He’s fantastic. And, as an added benefit, his least favorite student is out of his hair for the rest of the day.” John gave me a well-earned high-five. We sped out of the parking lot, and ended up at the mall. Or, more specifically, the mall’s food court.

 

As we sipped our smoothies and stared at the moms going on about their day, John asked me a question. “Is your dad going to let you join the team?”

 

“Ha. I wish. I’m lucky if he’s going to let me touch the Bunker computers. He thinks they’re prone to explode, or something. I wish my dad were as cool as yours.”

 

“Because he’s letting me join the team when I graduate high school?”

 

“No, because he’s letting you choose. You could’ve gone to college, or enlisted, or joined the team, or whatever you wanted. But Mom and Dad are set on me going to college.”

 

“You need to go to college, Ryder. You’re too smart not to. Besides, it’ll only take you two years, three tops, and then you’ll be back with us.”

 

“Doing what? System analysis? Look, I know that Mom’s an integral part of the team, but it’s not like they need a second one of her. And I’m trained. In a couple years, they’ll be no stopping me.”

 

“Sparring with our dads and being out on the street are two different things.”

 

“You’re my best friend. You’re supposed to be encouraging me!”

 

“And as your pseudo older brother, my job is to keep you safe.”

 

“Yeah, and you can do that out in the field.”

 

“You’ll have plenty of time to be out in the field, you little maverick, but you only get to be young once. Take advantage of it.”

 

“Look at you, giving out your zen wisdom.”

 

“I’m just saying don’t grow up too quick.” 

 

\--------------------------------------------

 

I had managed to go without thinking of my best friend for two days. Even though I had done it on purpose, to keep myself from falling apart, it still felt like a betrayal. Now the memories came flooding back. All of the times we babysat Tommy together. The time we spent sparring. All of the smoothie stops at the mall. As much as I loved Frankie, and it was a whole lot, she still wasn’t the one I went to for relationship advice, or to whine about how unfair my parents were being, or to confess how scared I got sometimes on the streets. It was John. It was the little two and a half year old out in the Bunker. How was I supposed to face that?

 

Don found me. “How you holding up?”

 

“I’m fine,” I said through my tears.

 

“Okay, now we that we got that lie out of the way, how you holding up?”

 

I pulled my knees tighter against my chest and tried to gain my composure. “How can he be out there? I mean, I know how he can be out there, but how?”

 

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and held on tight. “Because sometimes the world isn’t fair, especially to people like us.” 

 

“I wasn’t expecting to see him.”

 

“I know.”

 

“I would’ve prepared myself, I wouldn’t be like this…”

 

“You don’t have to make excuses to me, you know that. I know how much you love him.” Another thing I loved about Don: he never had a problem with how close John and I were. Yeah, he got frustrated when he couldn’t keep up with us in the field, but he never had a problem with my best friend being a guy. It’s not like there was anything for him to have a problem with, but I knew how guys could be. 

 

Just when I thought I was pulling myself together, John wandered into our private corner. Before I knew what was happening, he had climbed onto my lap. He started pulling on my hair, and I honestly didn’t know what to do. I was used to dealing with little kids, but this situation was a little different.

 

Dig came running in. “There you are, buddy.” He lifted John off my lap and held him in his arms. “Sorry about that. He has just loved running around lately. Just as long as he stays away from the weapons, right?”

 

“Right,” I managed to get out, quickly wiping the tears off of my face. 

 

“You alright there, Anna?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just-”

 

“You just can’t handle seeing my son.” Comprehension dawned on Dig’s face, then quickly turned dark. “This Event, does it somehow involve….”

 

Don vehemently shook his head, but I nodded. There were some things I wasn’t willing to lie about. Apparently the fate of my best friend in the whole world was one of them. 

 

“We’re going to stop this,” said Dig with conviction. “Isn’t that right, little man?” He said, turning to his son. 

 

“Yeah, we got this,” said Don. I said nothing. I would do whatever it took to stop this, of course, but even then I couldn’t guarantee John’s safety. That was our world. 

 

“I found something!” I heard Mom yelling. The four of us rushed into the main part of the Bunker to join Mom and Dad.

 

“What did you get?”

 

“I think I have the identity of Mr. X. It just doesn’t make much sense.”

 

I sat down next to her. “Tell me everything.”

 

There were a bunch of files on Mom’s monitor, but I couldn’t see a pattern in all of it. Obviously, Mom could. 

 

“If you combine what I was able to read on your tablet with what I was able to decrypt, we have the profile of a white man in his late twenties to early thirties, with a lot of money and global reach.”

 

Dig frowned. “That describes a lot of people. Does he have a name?”

 

“Not yet. But that’s as far as Kuttler’s data trail led. However, with some cross-referencing, we should be able to come up with something soon.”

 

“Do you need my help?”

 

“That would be great. Dig, you can go ahead and head home. We probably won’t have anything until the morning.”

 

“No, JJ and I are staying here tonight. I want to be here first thing.” I could see where Dig’s determination was coming from, even if Mom found it unusual. 

 

“Don, why don’t you and Oliver get some training in while I work on the program?” I suggested. Give Dad more time to get used to Don. 

 

As Don and Dad went off, I made myself comfortable at the computer station with my tablet. The program wouldn’t be difficult to write, but it would be time-intensive. I decided to start with a basic cross-referencing identification program I already had, and make modifications from there. 

 

As some of the code was loading, I looked around and made sure no one could see the tablet before opening up some old pictures and scrolling through them. There were a bunch of photos of me and Tommy growing up, some family shots, even a really embarrassing photo of the time I went to Don’s senior prom. We had skipped out half-way through to stop a robbery in progress, but we made it back in time to watch Frankie be crowned queen. It was one of the best nights of my life. Back when things were relatively normal. I kept scrolling and found a photo of what Mom called the Four Musketeers: me, John, and the twins. It was a selfie we had taken just after the twins’ graduation. Don and Frankie were in their cap and gown, and I was kissing Don’s cheek while Frankie was kissing John’s. I thought we were just playing around, but that was something else I would never figure out now. Another secret John might have been keeping from me. 

 

I heard a solid thud, and turned to see Don on the floor with my dad on top of him. I guess sparring wasn’t going that well. It wasn’t like Don wasn’t a good fighter without his speed, but he wasn’t at our level. I put down my tablet and went to go check on them.

 

“How’s it going?” 

 

Don grunted as Dad jumped off of him. “Don could use a little more practice with his hand-to-hand and close quarters,” Dad commented, almost angrily. Great. He was already starting to dislike him, and my plan was backfiring. 

 

“I wasn’t expecting you to fight dirty,” Don whined.

 

“Oh, you’re expecting a fair fight from the people we could be going up against?”

 

“No, I was planning on using my speed on anyone we could be going up against.”

 

“And if they have a meta dampener like they did back at the plant? Then what?”

 

“Then I have Ryder,” he turned to me with a smile. I grimaced. That comment definitely wouldn’t help. 

 

“And if Ryder’s hurt?” Don met him with silence. “We’re going to continue this training until you can deflect a roundhouse kick effectively.” Oh, man. They could be here all night. Well, it wasn’t like we had anywhere else to be. 

 

I went back to the computer console. Mom was looking at my tablet. Good, she was checking my work on the program. I sat down across from her, and noticed she was crying. She turned the tablet toward me, and I saw what she was looking at. A family photo of me, Tommy, William, Dad…

 

And her.


	22. Chapter 22

“Why are you going through my stuff?” I exclaimed angrily, ripping the tablet away from her and turning it off.

 

“Anna, what is that photo?”

 

“It’s a photo from the future. One you’re not meant to see. Let’s get back to coding.”

 

“How am I supposed to get back to work after I know about...that?” She said, vaguely gesturing at my tablet. My stupid, stupid tablet. “Anna, is that what I think it is?”

 

“That depends on what you’re thinking. If you’re thinking it’s something of no consequence, then good for you, you got it in one.” I turned away from her and started uploading my program onto the main interface.

 

“Anna, look at me.” I sighed. I couldn’t ignore her. I just couldn’t. I looked into her eyes, and found myself starting to cry just like her. “Are we a family?”

 

I was too choked up to say anything. I just nodded. Mom’s hands went up to cover her mouth in surprise, or fear, or something. We sat like that for a while, just staring into each other’s eyes and crying silently. I couldn’t name all the reasons I found myself too emotional for words. Tonight had just been too overwhelming. And with everything Mom had been through lately, I understood where she was coming from as well. 

 

“Does Oliver know?” she whispered. 

 

I shook my head. Then, I choked my tears back enough to say, “No! And you can’t tell him!”

 

“Because it could change the future?”

 

“Exactly.” At least she got it. 

 

“But haven’t you already changed the future by coming back here?”

 

“Yes, but that was to erase the Event, not erase myself. I’m not here to cause too much of a paradox.”

 

“Okay.” Mom paused for a moment, then a huge smile broke across her face. “So Oliver and I-we’re together, like, in the future?” I could answer this question, as long as I didn’t get too specific.

 

“Yeah, you guys are together in the future.”

 

“And we have kids. William and you, and your brother?”

 

“That’s right.” 

 

Mom’s smile got even brighter. “And we’re happy?” Whoa, I wouldn’t go that far. I mean, we were happy for the most part, but then Mom got sick, and then the Event, and then, and then. Death was always chasing us. It was always going to be just a matter of time. 

 

“We’ve had some great times,” was all I was able to say. But that seemed to make Mom pretty happy.

 

“Is that why you’ve always been so distant from me? Because you didn’t want to give anything away?”

 

“Exactly.” If only she knew. 

 

“And I’m the one who taught you to code?”

 

“As if there were ever any doubt.” I was too good a coder not to have been trained by Felicity Queen. “Look, just don’t tell anyone, alright? I mean, Don knows, of course, but no one else.”

 

“Got it. Okay, I just got your half of the program, and I’ll start running it.” Once the program was and up and running, I caught Don’s eye and motioned for him to meet me in the back. 

 

“Mom knows.” I said simply.

 

“She knows she’s your mom and she and your dad are together?”

 

“Basically.”

 

“How’d she figure it out?”

 

“I left my tablet unlocked. She was able to scroll through it and find an incriminating photo.”

 

“Oh, man. What are you going to do?”

 

“Nothing, I guess. I told her not to tell Dad, so I at least have that buffer. Hopefully this doesn’t change the course of their relationship too much. Dad says in this time they’re practically dating again anyway.”

 

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between practically and actually.”

 

“I know. What am I supposed to do?”

 

“Just be more careful, I guess.” It was only a half-chastisement, but I deserved so much more. As great as it was to have the truth out there, it was a ridiculous mistake on my part. It was sentimental to have those photos stored on my tablet, and I should’ve deleted them before I Traveled. 

 

“I’m going to see if I can’t get a bit of sleep before the program finishes running.”

 

“Yeah. I think your dad has plans to train me all night, and get Dig involved.”

 

“He only wants you to be safe.”

 

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s certainly what it feels like.” I gave him a sympathetic look as he went off to the training mats. I lay down and closed my eyes, hoping sleep would come quickly.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------

 

I woke up in STAR Labs. It wasn’t unusual for me to wake up somewhere different than when I fell asleep, but I had a feeling what this was about. The Speed Force was haunting me again. I got up and wandered the halls, searching for my Speed Force guide. Eventually, I found Frankie, asleep in the sleeping quarters. I ran up to her, and tried shaking her awake. Nothing. She appeared unharmed, but it didn’t seem like she was waking up anytime soon.

 

“We’re sorry to have to do this.” I turned around and saw Mr. Allen again. Well, not Mr. Allen, but the Speed Force.

 

“What have you done to her?”

 

“Nothing. Just protecting the timeline.”

 

“By keeping her trapped here?”

 

“She’s quite comfortable. And she’ll wake as soon as we want her to.”

 

“Which is when?”

 

“When your mission fails.”

 

“We won’t fail.”

 

“You’re down one speedster.”

 

“And we’ve made it this far. We can keep going.”

 

“Last time we checked, you needed a team. What were you called? Oh, yes, the Four Musketeers. You and your beau just don’t have the firepower it takes to take on these guys.”

 

“Who? You know who caused the Event?”

 

“We know the events of every timeline that exists, including the one you’re creating now. You think you can stop it, but you can’t. And as soon as you see that, and return to your time, you can have her back.”

 

“She’s not yours to keep.”

 

“Why not? Her whole identity comes from us. Her powers, her very essence.”  _ Her powers _ .

 

“If you really wanted to stop us, you’d have taken away Don’s speed. Or stopped us all from coming back to this time. But you didn’t.”

 

“We’ve done enough. Ryder, stop this childish nonsense. Accept what is. Come back.”

 

“I’m no speedster. You can’t keep me here.” I focused on the Bunker, on Don, on my family. The scene before me faded into black.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

I woke up, this time in the Bunker. I pinched myself. I was in the waking world. So the Speed Force had Frankie. I looked up and saw Don on the bunk next to me. I could tell him, but that would only give him something else to worry about. He’d want to go in there and save her. She was unharmed. Nothing bad was happening to her there. Might as well keep Don’s mind on the mission. 

 

My tablet dinged next to me. I rolled over and took a look at the alert. The program was done running. I tapped on the results and started scrolling through them. The person matched Mom’s description in every way. This had to be our guy. I looked at the name and dropped the tablet. It couldn’t be. There was no possible way, for so many reasons. But yet the name stared back at me in perfect clarity.

 

Lex Luthor.


	23. Chapter 23

I shook Don awake. It was a difficult task, but he eventually woke up. I looked around to see if anyone else was there, and seeing Dad’s sleeping form, I ushered Don into the main part of the Bunker. 

 

“What is it?”

 

“We found out the identity of Mr. X.”

 

He was wide awake now. “Who is it?”

 

“Lex Luthor.”

 

Don’s jaw dropped. “That’s not possible.”

 

“That’s what I thought. But take a look for yourself.” I handed him my tablet and he quickly scrolled through it. “Everything matches him perfectly.”

 

“Yeah, but he’s not active for another ten years, at least.”

 

“Apparently not. Maybe this was the plot that started it all for him.”

 

“This isn’t Luthor’s MO. He’s not for indiscriminately killing people. The Event was the work of a brutal monster, not a cool operator like Luthor.” What Don was saying made sense. Lex didn’t care if there were mass casualties as long as he got his objective, but his objective was never mass casualties itself. 

 

“It looks like we’re going to have to pay Mr. Luthor a visit. Find out what he’s up to.”

 

“No. I’m not visiting that freak. No way.”

 

“I despise him on any Earth, but we can’t just let this lead go. Maybe he’s not even Mr. X. Maybe our program is wrong.”

 

“Yeah, right. Let’s wake the others and give Mr. Luthor a surprise with his morning coffee.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was suiting up, like I did any random Wednesday. I asked Mom who the target was, and she responded with as much disdain in her voice as possible, “Lex Luthor.”

 

I groaned. Luthor was hard to find, but easy to catch. The guy had no fighting skills. But no matter how many times we dropped him at SCPD’s doorstep, he still managed to weasel his way out of any charges. He had the power of the press, money, connections, you name it. The guy was probably responsible for a fair number of homicides in the city, but he was always hiding behind someone else. Maybe today would be the day that we caught him, but I highly doubted it.

 

John got on his motorcycle, and I hopped on the back. Connor Hawke and Maverick hitting the streets to see how the rich and the powerful were taking down our city. Mom was healthy, Dad was happy, Tommy was well-adjusted, and life couldn’t be better. We parked in back of LexCorp’s Star City headquarters, and I was able to hack us into the back entrance. Too many sets of stairs later, we had reached Luthor’s office. I broke the door in and we both strung our bows. 

 

Luthor was calmly sitting at his desk, and barely glanced up as we made our entrance. “Ah, if it isn’t my favorite pair of vigilantes. What brings you two into my office this fine evening?”

 

His demeanor pissed me off. Scratch that, everything about this guy pissed me off. If I was a worse hero, I would just do the world a favor and kill him already. However, unlike Luthor, I had been raised with manners. 

 

John turned his voice modulator on. “We know what you’re up to, Luthor. Stop the wire transfer out of the orphanage and give the kids their money back.”

 

“Oh, you’re here about that? Well, that’s no problem to sort out. You see, I own the orphanage.” He presented a piece of paper and slid it across the desk. I dropped my bow slightly and stepped up to read the document. He was right; it was a transfer of ownership to Alexander Luthor. It had gone into effect at midnight today, which was only a few minutes ago. I nodded to John. 

 

“Glad we could sort that out. I’m only transferring money from one of my holdings to another. Nothing for you to worry about. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” He went back to typing on his computer. 

 

I couldn't believe this. The man was insufferable. He was literally taking money away from orphans. But there was nothing we could do about it. It was perfectly legal. And while we operated outside the law, that didn’t mean prosecuting for poor money management. I turned to go. John hesitated for a moment, and then turned to Luthor. 

 

“One day, you’ll get what’s coming to you. And I hope I’m there to see it.”

 

That was the last thing he ever said to Lex Luthor.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

After waking up Dig and Dad and calling in Mom, I had her give a briefing about everything she knew about Lex Luthor at this point in time.

 

“Lex Luthor is the son of billionaire Lionel Luthor, CEO of LuthorCorp. It’s an industrial conglomerate in Metropolis focusing on much of what Queen Consolidated used to. Lex is poised to take over the company once his father retires, although it’s unclear when that will happen. Lex is currently Executive Vice President himself, overseeing their branches outside of Metropolis.” His picture popped up on screen. Man, even when he was younger he had the most punchable face. Maybe today I could get in that black eye that I had never managed in my time. 

 

“So he’s basically me?” Dad asked. It was an interesting way of putting it.

 

“Well, I found no evidence that he’s a vigilante in addition to being a billionaire jet-setter, so not quite. He also appears to have a good head for business. Top of his class at Harvard Business, MBA from the same. He has a ton of accolades, and we’re not just talking employee of the month.”

 

“And you’ve never met this guy before?” Mom had a point. I couldn’t remember a time when Dad and Luthor weren’t rivals of some sort or another. I assumed they went way back.

 

“Before the island, I didn’t really do anything related to QC, and even when I was CEO, I think I once scheduled a meeting with him but had to cancel for Arrow stuff.”

 

“So you’re saying the guy’s got a sterling reputation and we’re just going to go after him?” Dig was right. It was the problem we had been facing in the future, times two. There was no reason to investigate Lex in broad daylight. We’d have to be more covert.

 

“I’m working on tracing all of his financial activity, see if I can connect anything to Kuttler. I’m also looking into what LuthorCorp Applied Sciences was researching, see if anything comes close to matching the chemical that STAR Labs came up with. But right now, I’ve got nothing.” And if Mom had nothing, that probably wasn’t good news.

 

“Keep looking,” I said. “Lex Luthor is never as clean as he seems to be.”

 

“And what is it you know about him?” Dad asked.

 

“He’s a big player in the future. CEO of LexCorp, will do anything to turn a profit, impossible to catch.” I pulled out my tablet and brought up what I had on Luthor, as limited as it was. “This is what I have on him. Feel free to take a look if you think it might help, but all it will do is make you despise the guy more.”

 

“I know I do,” Don murmured. 

 

“Felicity, while you work here, Don and I are going to go check on Team Flash, see if they’ve got anything on that chemical. I’ll just leave my tablet here.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

As Don pulled me aside to race out of the Bunker, he said, “Gideon has had time to recharge. Now might be a good time to look for Frankie.” Okay, that was a good point. Problem was, I already knew where she was, and knew that Gideon wasn’t going to find her.

 

“Actually, I already know where Frankie is,” I admitted.

 

“What? Where? Let’s go get her!”

 

“Not so fast, champ. Getting her isn’t going to be that easy.”

 

“Okay, but where is she?”

 

“The Speed Force.”

 

Confusion flashed across Don’s face. “What? How can she be there? And how would you know?”

 

“Because I saw her.”

 

“ _ You _ were in the Speed Force?” Don asked disbelievingly.

 

“Yeah. It’s been invading my dreams for a couple of days now. Apparently that bracelet you got me connects me to it.”

 

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“I didn’t think it was a big deal. And it wasn’t being particularly helpful.”

 

“Of course it’s a big deal! And I could’ve helped you decode what it was telling you!”

 

“Whoa, you almost never tell me what the Speed Force says. Isn’t it part of the secret speed cult to keep that to yourself?”

 

“First off, there is no secret speed cult. Second off, no! I mean, I talk it through with my family when I go in and we figure it out, together. That’s the point of having a team.”

 

“Oh, so you tell your family but not me? Sounds like you have a bit of a double standard when it comes to the Speed Force!”

 

“I’ve had the Speed Force inside of me since I was born. I think I know what I’m doing.”

 

“And I don’t? I’m just some poor little novice who hasn’t had you around my entire life? I thought when I got this bracelet, it meant the Speed Force was choosing me. But I guess I don’t live up to the mighty speedsters!”

 

“You’re right! You’re not a speedster! And you can’t stop me from going into the Speed Force to save my sister!” And he sped off. So much for keeping that from him for his own good.

 

Apparently, our little fight caught Mom, Dad and Dig’s attention, as when I turned to look at them, they all glanced down at Mom’s screens way too quickly. I sighed. Yep, this is what having a team was like. I remembered now. 

 

“I guess I’m not going to STAR Labs.”

 

“Is he okay?” Mom asked.   
  


“Yeah, he just needs to blow off some steam. Hopefully the Speed Force will knock some sense into him.”

 

“What does he mean, he’s going  _ into _ the Speed Force?” Dad asked.

 

“The Speed Force is sometimes a place or a person as much as it is a cosmic force. And right now, his sister is trapped there, so he’s planning a rescue mission. It’ll fail, and then he’ll come right back here.”

 

Dig raised his eyebrows. “You sound pretty certain of that. Don’t believe in your beau?”

 

“Of course I believe in him. But I also believe that if the entity that gave him his powers wants to stop him from doing something, it’s capable of doing that.” Dig shrugged and got back to business, so I decided to lend a hand as well. “I can help you look through Luthor’s records. I know a little bit of what I’m looking for. Anything that can connect him to LP could help.”

 

And so I settled in for a long morning chasing down an evil mastermind, all while I tried to convince myself I had done the right thing with my boyfriend. And the person I most wanted to talk to about it most in the world was currently a toddler, sleeping in the corner. Who said this mission was going to be easy anyway?


	24. Chapter 24

After a while of finding nothing, I got up to go to the bathroom. Dig had already left to grab something to eat. When I came out, I heard Mom and Dad talking. 

 

“Hey, Oliver, can we talk?”

 

“Yeah, of course. What’s up?”

 

This should be interesting. I stayed in the shadows and crouched down to eavesdrop. I had to make sure Mom didn’t say anything she shouldn’t.

 

“Well, lately I’ve been giving some thought to-I mean, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but-well, what if you and I, I mean we-”

 

“Fe-li-ci-ty.”

 

“Right. I want to talk about us.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“I know with Anna here it’s weird, but-”

 

“I mean, she’s not here right now, so we can talk.”

 

“No, I mean with Anna’s existence in general, it’s weird. She’s your daughter. That’s huge.”

 

“Well, it’s not like she’s my first kid. I already have William, so this isn’t that different.”

 

“I think it is. I know you. You’ve given yourself a duty now.”

 

“And what duty is that?”

 

“You want to make sure Anna is born. You want to find her mother.”

 

“Yeah, of course I do. I can’t imagine a world where Ryder-”

 

“Ryder?”

 

“That’s Anna’s real name.”

 

“Oh. Good name.” So far, I had no reason to interrupt this conversation. Mom had free will, however she wanted to use it. But man, were my parents awkward back in this “practically dating” stage.

 

“I want Ryder in my world. And I’ve been trying to figure out who her mother is, but...I don’t know. For a while I thought it might be Laurel-”

 

“Laurel- why?”

 

“It’s her middle name. But then Laurel died, and I thought maybe it was just someone I hadn’t met yet, someone new.”

 

“Not me?” I didn’t need to see the expressions on Mom and Dad’s faces to know we had taken a swerve for the worst. I stormed into the main area.

 

“Find anything yet?” I certainly found something. I had left Mom and Dad sitting on opposite sides of the platform, but now they were standing so close together they were practically touching. As much as I hated to break up such an intimate moment, the timeline had to be preserved. 

 

“Not yet,” said Mom, jumping away from Dad. When Dad wasn’t looking, I gave her a look. As much as I shipped it, it wasn’t going to be happening in this Bunker. “LuthorCorp has extensive holdings, and going through them all is a laborious process.”

 

“Okay, keep it up, you never know-” Just then, Don sped in, looking disappointed. “Hey, champ, did you get her?”

 

“Don’t ‘champ’ me.” He stormed off into the elevator. Okay, someone was in a mood. It happened very rarely. Usually he was the chipper one and I was the downer. Mom and Dad looked at me. Guess it was up to me to go talk to him. I boarded the elevator and found him just outside the campaign office. It had been a while since I’d seen the sun, so I had to squint. Don wasn’t having the same problem. 

 

“So I guess you weren’t able to save her.”

 

“She was just lying there, Rye, completely helpless.” 

 

“I know. I saw her, too.”

 

“He said I couldn't have her. Not until I saw this through.”

 

“Who did?”

 

“Dad.” Oh. His dad didn’t predict Don was going to fail, unlike he did for me. Clearly we were getting different sides to why she was being kept.“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

 

“Because I knew you would get upset, and I didn’t want that.”

 

“We don’t keep things from each other, Rye. Even if you think it’ll piss me off, or make it so I’d never talk to you again. I wouldn’t do that to you, so just trust me.”

 

“I’m sorry.” And really, I was. I didn’t like keeping things from him, not ever. That’s why it killed me that I still had one secret left. 

 

“Just promise me, no more secrets on this mission.”

 

I crossed my finger behind my back. “Promise.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Back in the Bunker, Mom was typing like a woman on a mission. It looked like she had found something. “Did you guys work it out?”

 

“Yeah, we’re good,” Don said.

 

“I’m sorry about your sister. But you two will get her. You always do.” 

 

“Right.” I just wanted to know what she had found. “Got anything?”

 

“Actually, I do. Luthor Biomedical has been researching this exact chemical for years. It’s proprietary, they own it. They’re in the process of lobbying the government to put the chemical in all public water supplies, like we do fluorine.”

 

“Right. But wouldn’t the government run a study on how it affects the human body and see that it’s poison?”

 

“LuthorCorp has its own studies. They’re pretty air tight in the benefits of the chemical.”

 

“Then they’ve never done a longitudinal study. Anyone with that chemical in their system is just waiting for death.”

 

“Is the government falling for it?” Don asking the important questions.

 

“The indication is the FDA and FEMA are going to approve it within the next decade.”

 

I had to jump in. “That may be, but we did extensive research on what chemicals the government was putting in the water supply. There was nothing even remotely resembling this chemical, and they had made no new additions in the last twenty years.”

 

Dad sighed. “Then maybe they weren’t getting it in through official channels. Maybe they were just dumping it in.”

 

“That would be easy enough for Star and Central City, but not for the whole country.”

 

Mom, Dad, and Dig looked up at me. “This is nationwide?” asked Dig. Whoops. Wasn’t supposed to mention that. 

 

“Um, yeah.” The three of them had looks of utter shock. Now maybe they understood my complete and total desperation to get something done. “Luthor has to be getting this into the water supply by more than just dumping it. It has to be something more understated. We’ll keep looking. In the meantime, Dig and Oliver, could I have you positioned at the water station the Bratva hit first? If they go back there, I want to know. I’ll go check on Team Flash to see if they have an update on the neutralization compound.”

 

Once Don had dropped me off at STAR Labs, I found Mr. Allen and Cisco hard at work. 

 

“Hey, guys, any luck?”

 

“We’ve made some progress. Nothing substantial, but I feel like we’re close to a breakthrough.” At least Mr. Allen was framing things in a positive light. Having him on this project was really quite helpful. 

 

“It would be helpful if Harry would actually listen to others’ ideas, or if Julian would take the stick out of his butt, but we’re doing fine, sure.” Okay, maybe not doing so fine. 

 

“Has Dr. Brand come back yet?”

 

“She popped by earlier. Physics is her specialty, so there’s not a lot she can do to help.” Mr. Allen was right, of course. She was a brilliant scientist, but this wasn’t her area of expertise. 

 

“What’s going on at your end?” Cisco asked.

 

“We think we found the guy responsible for everything. We’re just now trying to link him to what’s going on to see the best way to take him down.”

 

Mrs. West-Allen walked in with a huge bag. “You boys hungry?” I knew exactly how hard it was to keep a speedster fed, so I didn’t envy her having to carry all those sandwiches.

 

“Always,” Mr. Allen said, grabbing the bag from her. An idea occurred to me.

 

“Hey, Iris, do you think you could look into something for me?”

 

“I mean, I’m not much for science-”

 

“As a journalist.”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Could you get me any research on anyone who’s lobbied the government to add extra chemicals into our water supply, as well as who was for and against it?”

 

“Whoa. That’s a very specific request.”

 

“It would be a huge help.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.”

 

“Thanks.” I watched her walk out, and figured that since I was stuck here until Don came back, I might as well make myself useful. I started looking over Mr. Allen’s calculations to see where he was at. A lot of it was over my head, but I was able to figure out looked correct. There seemed to be an equation he was unable to crack, so I started on it. 

 

After a while, Cisco looked over my shoulder. I reacted reflexively. “What, think you can copy off of me?”  _ A bit too personal, there _ .

 

“I’m just trying to see what you’re working on, no need to get testy.” He leaned over further, putting his hand on my shoulder for balance. Suddenly he clenched up and stepped back. “Whoa.”

 

“What is it, Cisco? Did you think of something?”

 

I turned to look at Cisco, and he was pointing at me with a shaking finger. “You...you’re...ah!” What was he doing? He leaned into me conspiratorially, and whispered, “You’re Oliver’s daughter!”

 

Oh, that.

 

I glanced up at Mr. Allen, and he looked just as shocked. So he had heard. “Wait, you’re Oliver’s daughter? Says who?”

 

“I totally just Vibed it. Oh... Felicity’s your mom, right?”

 

“Jeez, privacy much?” How much had he Vibed?

 

“Oh, no, I didn’t Vibe that part, it’s just super obvious.” It’s not like he had tricked me, but it sure felt like I had been duped.

 

“So you’re from a future where Oliver and Felicity are together and have a kid? And that kid becomes a vigilante?”

 

Mr. Allen had hit it on the head. I shrugged. “Basically.” There was a pause, and then Mr. Allen and Cisco burst out laughing. They kept looking at each other and me and laughing. “What’s so funny about that?”

 

Mr. Allen might’ve actually had to wipe away a tear. How tired were they? “Because that’s exactly what Ollie had coming.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Felicity for a wife and a spitfire vigilante daughter? He’s totally in over his head.” Cisco might’ve had a point. “He’ll just never see this coming.”

 

“Okay, enough laughing. Let’s get down to business. I think I have a better idea of the boiling point of the substance.”

 

Mr. Allen snatched the paper out of my hands. “What? I wasn’t able to figure that out.”

 

“Well, I’m self-taught in biology and chemistry through a PhD level. I know what I’m doing.”

 

Cisco chuckled. “Dang, girl, you really are Felicity’s daughter.”

 

Just then, Don rushed into the room. “Any progress?”

 

“Oh, and I suppose you’re Barry’s son?” Cisco was clearly joking, but Don didn’t know that, leaving us in awkward silence. Before anyone could spoil anything else, I grabbed Don’s elbow and ushered him out of the room.

 

“What’s Uncle Cisco talking about?”

 

“That’s another problem to worry about. Can we go back to the Bunker?”

 

“Sure.” And off we sped.


	25. Chapter 25

Mom was typing frantically on her keyboard when I returned. “Did Team Flash figure anything out?”

 

“They’re getting there. They should have something ready by the time we actually need it. Any update from Dad and Dig?”

 

“Nothing yet, but you can check in with them.”

 

I leaned over the comm and turned it on to Dad’s frequency. “Find anything yet?”

 

“Negative. The place is quiet. Right now, we’re just avoiding the security that’s already here.”

 

“Yeah, like that security did any good last time. Alright, just keep your head on a swivel.”

 

“Copy.” I turned back to Mom.

 

“Anything suspicious at all?”

 

“Nothing. LuthorCorp has made so many purchases of patents and other holdings in the last decade it’s staggering. Nothing unusual, nothing that could help them with water distribution.”

 

“Huh. Mind if I take a look at what you were able to come up with?”

 

“Be my guest.” She gestured at the printer, and I grabbed a list of the purchases. She was right; there were way too many to count. I gave a stack to Don and started going through mine, knowing Mom would’ve already run them through several algorithms looking for something that could spread LP to the public. Most of the names were of companies that were unrecognizable to me. There were several hundred patents and I saw that Mom had annotated all of them. They were for things like microchips and jet engines, but nothing that screamed contagion. 

 

I slammed my hands down on the desk. “This is pointless. We’re running out of time. We only have a day and a half left.”

 

“We’ve come this far by working the evidence. We’ll get there, hon, just be patient.”

 

I swiveled in my chair to look at my mom. “What did you just say?”

 

“We’ll get there.”

 

“No, what did you call me?”

 

She paused. “Oh. Sorry.”

 

“Don’t apologize. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t just hallucinating.”

 

“It’s just that ever since I...found out, I just want to hold you close and never let you go. I know I’m not making any sense-”

 

“No, it’s all good.”

 

“Yeah, just I didn’t expect the motherly instinct to come on this strong. Is that normal?”

 

“Beats me. I’m nineteen.”

 

“Right. I guess I meant, am I usually like this?”

 

“Yeah, pretty much.”

 

“Huh.” Mom turned back to her computer and Don and I exchanged a look. I was appreciative that he had stayed out of the conversation, but I would definitely need to rehash it with him later. As it was, I was holding back tears. I reminded myself I was here for a reason. My mind drifted back yet again.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 185. Don, Frankie and I had been extensively briefed on everything that was going on with Team Arrow and Team Flash in the days that we’d been traveling to. We were standing in the pipeline, fully suited up, with our bags in front of us. This was it. This was the moment we were actually going to do this. I double-checked that my tablet was safely tucked away, and that my bracelet was secured around my wrist. Nothing to do now but say good-bye.

 

Mrs. West-Allen gave me a giant hug and whispered in my ear, “Bring them back.” I nodded. 

 

Grandpa Joe looked me in the eye and said, “You be careful, alright? I want all of you back in one piece,” before hugging me. 

 

Cisco was next. He clasped me on both of my shoulders. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I laughed before he held out his fist for me to punch. I did, disappointedly, before he grabbed me and hugged me. 

 

Dig stepped up next, and just gave me a hug. “You know what to do.”

 

Tommy was crying, so I stooped down and gave him a hug. “It’s going to be okay, buddy, I got this. You won’t even know I was gone.”

 

“That’s just it. I’m going to forget all about this, and I don’t want to.”

 

“I’ll make you a promise. If you forget all about this, I’ll tell you, alright? I’ll remind you of what a hero your sister is.” I held out my pinkie, and Tommy linked it in his. “You try not to forget, and I’ll help you remember.” Tommy nodded and I released his hand. 

 

Finally, Dad ushered me out into the hallway, to give the twins privacy with their mom, and, hopefully, to say something to me. We stood there for a while, neither of us saying anything. I just wished he would say what something, anything, like “I love you” or “you can do this” or even “good luck.” Finally, I broke the silence.   
  


“Well, I’m leaving now.” As I turned to go, Dad called out to me.

 

“Ryder.” I turned to face him. “Thank you.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Doing what I couldn’t. You’re right, I haven’t been here, not...here, here. So, go, bring her back, and when you do...bring me back, too.” I wasn’t going to cry. I had promised myself that walking into this. So I just nodded. Mrs. West-Allen came out of the pipeline, so I took that as a cue to join the twins.

 

I stepped up to the edge of the pipeline with them and fastened my backpack to my back. “So, we’re really doing this?”

 

“Looks like it,” Frankie said. We stood standing there, at the edge of the everything, for what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes. 

 

“If anyone wants to back out, now’s the time,” I offered. Don shook his head and grabbed my hand.

 

Frankie locked eyes with me. “If we do this, there’s no going back. We have to face the world we come back to. The three of us. No one else can ever know.” Don and I nodded our heads in agreement. It would be going back on my promise to Tommy, but it was for the better. No one could ever know we had altered the timeline, even if it was for their own good. No one we brought back could know that they had died. No one would be able to handle that. It would be our burden. “Is this what we want?” 

 

I could tell she was unsure, and I wanted to reassure her. This was the right thing to do. “This is the only thing there is left to do.” 

 

“Okay,” Don said. “Let’s go.” And they took off running. 

 

\------------------------------------------------------

 

I came back to my senses with Don tapping me on the shoulder. “Where’d you go just now?”

 

“Nowhere. I’m here.” I smiled up at him and returned to sorting through my papers. After another hour of trying to draw connections, I threw my hands in the air. “That’s it. I’m done. I’m just going to march down to Luthor’s office and see what he’s up to. He appreciates people being up-front anyway.”

 

“Okay, but which Luthor? Lionel or Lex?” Good point. I knew nothing about Lionel Luthor, and I doubted that he was running his company dirty like his son soon would. 

 

“Lex. We know what we’re dealing with there. And playing the long game makes sense.”

 

Mom turned toward me. “You’re just going to confront a madman and demand that he, what? Give you his secret formula?”

 

“I can be pretty persuasive when I need to be.”

 

“No. I know what that’s code for, and I won’t allow it.”

 

“Sorry, you don’t tell me what to do. I came into this mission willing to do whatever it takes, and that’s what I’m going to do. Come on, Don.” I grabbed my tablet.

 

Don followed me toward the elevator, and Mom did nothing to stop me.


	26. Chapter 26

We arrived in Metropolis after what was a pretty long run for Don. “You need a second to catch your breath?” 

 

“Nah, I’m good. I’m just going to need a nap once we get back to Star City.”

 

“Fair enough.”

 

We snuck around to the back of the building, and I hacked us through the back door. Numeric keypads were just too easy. According to my tablet, Lex was in his office in meetings all day today. It was just a matter of catching him off-guard. His office was on the top floor with the other executives. Luckily, there was a service elevator by the back exit. Once I convinced it I had key card access, we were able to take it to the top floor. 

 

When we arrived at the top floor, we started looking for Lex’s office. Unfortunately, security met us as we were going. 

 

“Where are you two going?”

 

“We have business with Mr. Luthor,” Don explained.

 

“Then where are your visitor badges?”

 

“Right here.” I held up my fist, and quickly swung it at him. He staggered back and hit his head against the wall, falling unconscious. 

 

“Ryder! You can’t just-”

 

“Why not? He’ll be fine.” I waved him down the hall, where I found the office of “Alexander Luthor, Executive Vice President.” I guess the title of “Executive Vice Jerk” was already taken. I tried the door. Unlocked. I nodded to Don, opened the door, and we bust our way inside.

 

“Lex Luthor, I know what you’re up to!” I was met by the blank stares of an extremely youthful, yet still bald, Lex Luthor, and a truly confused looking Indian woman. 

 

“I’m sorry, but what are you doing in my office? Security!” 

 

“We took care of the security on this floor, Luthor.” He hit a red button on his phone, probably some kind of panic button. “Don't bother, Luthor, we’re onto you.”

 

“Ms. Patel, please feel free to leave as I deal with these lunatics.” The woman walked out and we let her. “What are you kids on about? What do you think you have on me?”

 

“The chemical, Luthor. Recognize this?” I held up my tablet with the chemical structure displayed on it. “It’s what you hired those Russians to dump into the water and how you're planning on poisoning the country.”

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Two large men with tasers stepped into the office behind us. Don knew better than to use his speed, so that left me to face them alone. I dispatched of them quickly, with Don helping out with a kick here and there. Luthor looked on in confusion. “Are you guys terrorists? What is going on?”

 

“I’m discussing your plan, for whatever reason, to put a chemical into the water that will kill people in a couple of decades. That’s why the LuthorCorp has been lobbying the government to have it introduced to the public.”

 

“Are you talking about our attempt to put vitamins in the drinking water? That’s my father’s project, not mine. And it’s not poison, it’s going to increase public health.” I studied him carefully. He was serious. This is really what he thought was happening. Still, I couldn’t let him go just like this.

 

“You better watch your back, Luthor. I don’t suffer fools.” I ran out of the office, with Don following. It was only a matter of time before there were more security after us, so I grabbed Don’s hand and squeezed it. In a matter of seconds, we were back in the Bunker. Don collapsed. Metropolis was truly far away. We wouldn't be going back there anytime soon. Plus we were probably blacklisted and assigned a shoot on sight order. I helped Don back to a cot and made sure he was situated before kissing him on the forehead and returning to talk to Mom.

 

“How did it go with Luthor?”

 

“Not great. He denied knowing anything.”

 

“And you believe him?”

 

“I kind of do. He seemed sincere. And he’s usually pretty up-front with me.” My tablet started beeping. I was getting a call. “Hello?”

 

“Hey, Anna, this is Iris. I got some information on water additives.”

 

“Oh, great! What do you got for me?”

 

“There are several organizations that have been lobbying the government to add substances to the public drinking water. The most recent is LuthorCorp, and-”

 

“Could you tell me more about LuthorCorp’s efforts?”

 

“Sure. They have a proprietary vitamin mix that they think could save lives in areas where fresh food is hard to come by.”

 

“Is anyone helping them out?”

 

“There are a ton of groups that have publicly supported them: Metron Pharmaceuticals, Hardwick Enterprises, Wickman Industries, NuCorp, I mean the list goes on.” Those names sounded familiar. I rifled through the papers I had been looking at earlier.

 

“Those are all LuthorCorp subsidiaries, or groups that Luthor has the majority stake.”

 

“That’s weird. None of that came up when I was researching them.”

 

“I’ll look into it. Was there anyone going against LuthorCorp’s efforts?”

 

“Only one group spoke out against them: Mercury Labs. They thought more testing was necessary.”

 

“Okay. Thanks, Iris.”

 

“Sure. Let me know if you need anything else.”

 

“I will.” I disconnected the call. Mrs. West-Allen had given me a lot to think about. Luthor was apparently buying up companies in order to have them support him in his effort to introduce LP into the water. And Mercury Labs was the only one to see anything wrong with that. I’d have to go talk to Tina McGee the next time we sped to Central City. In the meantime, maybe Mom had found something.

 

“Hey, Mom?” Mom spun around in her chair so fast I was worried she’d hurt herself. Then she stared at me as her eyes became shiny behind her glasses. “What?”

 

“That’s the first time you’ve called me Mom.”  _ Oh _ . 

 

“We’re not exactly keeping secrets anymore, so I figured it would be fine. It doesn’t freak you out, does it?”

 

“No, it’s actually pretty amazing.” She hesitated, and then asked what was on her mind. “Am I going to be a good mom?”

 

How could she ask something like that? “Of course you will!”

 

“You know there was a time when Oliver and I considered getting a dog, but then decided it was too much to handle on top of Team Arrow responsibilities.”

 

“You never told me that.”

 

“I can’t imagine that we’re going to have a kid. Our lives are far from normal.”

 

“Well, there’s an argument that I’m not exactly the most normal person, either. It’s going to be fine, Mom.” She looked a little less stressed. “Anyway, what have you found on Luthor?”

 

“Lex and Lionel are both clean. I don’t know what else to tell you. They haven’t so much as misplaced a tax filing. Either they’re innocent or the most dastardly minds on the planet.”

 

I was inclined to believe the latter, but without proof, it was hard to say anything. I felt like we were hitting a dead end. Until I could go talk to Mercury Labs about their research, I had nothing. After checking with Dad that there was nothing new at the plant they were monitoring, I started going through new Luthor files Mom had pulled up. That didn’t take very long, and soon I found myself pulled back into another memory of all the Event had taken from me.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mom had just been released from another extended hospital stay. Dad insisted we go out and celebrate. I knew we were technically celebrating Mom’s health, but it felt like so much more than that. To me, it was a celebration of the return to normalcy in my family. Dad was so much easier to reach when Mom wasn’t being treated, and Tommy was a lot brighter, even if he didn’t know everything that was going on. It was supposed to be a family dinner, but before we knew it, John, Dig, and Aunt Lyla had been invited, too.

 

We were being loud and obnoxious and probably driving the wait staff insane with our joyous laughter. We didn’t care. We were all back together again. Just before our food came, John pulled out his phone. I was the only one who noticed, and no one seemed bothered by the look on his face or the fact that he excused himself from the table. Something was off, though, so I followed him outside, into a thunderstorm.

 

“No, they don’t know,” he said into his phone. He nodded a few times and then said, “I’ll make sure of it.” He turned and saw me standing there, starting to get soaked.

 

“What was that about?”

 

“It was nothing, Ryder.”

 

“It was something, John. What don’t we know?” I had assumed he was talking about us, his family.

 

“Don’t worry about it.”

 

“Don’t say that, not to me. I’m supposed to be your best friend.”

 

“You’re just a kid, and-”

 

“I’m sixteen! And I might as well be thirty-six with the things I’ve seen!”

 

John’s face dropped. “You’re not ready for this.” He brushed past me to walk back into the restaurant. But he wasn’t careful enough.

 

I swiped his phone, which he had left unlocked. I scrolled to the most recent contact, and found out it was a blocked number. I called it back.

 

“What is it, kid?” I didn’t recognize the voice. “Look, I’m busy. If you have a problem with our arrangement, I’ll let the press know all about Connor Hawke. Your call.” I hung up.

 

Was John being blackmailed? What did they have on him that they could use as leverage? Did someone know his identity? All questions I never got answers to. That’s how the world worked now.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------

 

“Overwatch, do you copy?” Dad was trying to contact us.   
  


“I copy, Green Arrow.”

 

“There are some people entering the water treatment plant. They look like maintenance workers, but I can’t be sure.”

 

Mom turned to me. I leaned into the comm. “Go investigate. Keep a low profile, but don’t let them touch the water.”

 

“Copy.”

 

I turned to Mom with a worried look. They were in Central, so there was no way I could join their stake-out even if I wanted to. And man, did I want to. But if there were two people going to check something out, I’d want them to be Dad and Dig. There was no one I trusted more. 

 

A few minutes later, Dad came back on the comms. “I don’t think these guys are maintenance workers. I’m going in.” A few grunts and punches, then Dig shouting, then static over the comms. 

 

Mom was worried. “Green Arrow? Spartan?” Nothing. “Dig? Oliver? Answer me!”

 

Silence. 


	27. Chapter 27

“You have to go get them.” Mom was right, but there was no way Don could speed me there.

 

“I can’t get to Central in enough time. You’re going to have to have Team Flash go in.”

 

Mom typed a few commands into her keyboard. “It’s Felicity. Do you copy?”

 

“We copy.”

 

“Oliver and Dig are in trouble at the Eastern Central City water treatment plant. We need Barry to go check it out.”

 

“I thought you needed Barry to work on the chemical.”

 

“Please, hurry!”

 

A few moments later, Joe responded, “Barry is on his way.” Mom breathed a sigh of relief, and I did as well. They’d be in good hands with Mr. Allen, no matter what happened.

 

“I’m patching myself into Barry’s comms. I need to know Oliver’s okay.”

 

“I’m sure he’s fine.”  _ What if he’s not?  _ That was a dark place to go to. Yes, it would be personally devastating for me to lose my father, but more importantly, the world needed Green Arrow alive and well. If he got more than a few scratches on this mission, our family, and Star City at large, would pay.

 

“Flash, do you copy? This is Overwatch.”

 

“I copy. There’s no one here. The only sign of them is the van parked out back, but there’s no one in it.”

 

It sure sounded like they had been taken. But who would have the power to take out Dad and Dig, fighting together? It was difficult to imagine. But it was harder to deny that that’s what had happened. 

 

“Can you pull up their suit’s GPSs?”

 

Mom typed in a few commands, but nothing was coming up. “Both Dig’s and Oliver’s suit’s trackers are offline. I have no way of finding them.”

 

She might not, but I did. I suited up.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

I didn’t have much patience, so I kicked down the door of Kuttler’s hotel room. I immediately heard screams. It wasn’t Kuttler; it was a young family who looked like they were enjoying a vacation. I turned on my voice modulator.

 

“There’s no need to be alarmed. Just tell me if you know anything about the previous occupant of this room.” They fearfully shook their heads. I put my arrow back in its quiver. I don’t even know why I bothered asking. Kuttler had split town, and it was going to take too much time to find him. 

 

I returned to the Bunker where Mom was still frantically searching for any leads, apparently still talking to Mr. Allen.

 

“You’re saying there’s no evidence of a struggle? I’m telling you what I heard, and it was signs of a struggle.”

 

“Felicity, there’s nothing to prove they were even here.”

 

“They were there. Now they’re not. Someone must’ve taken them.”

 

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Felicity. I couldn’t even find retreating tire tracks outside.”

 

“Maybe they came in on foot.”

 

“And went out on foot? Even less likely.”

 

“I’ll keep searching on my end. You get back to STAR Labs. I know what you have to do there is important.” Mom turned to me. “And where have you been?”

 

“I went to look for Kuttler. He’s relocated. So that’s a dead end.”

 

“Everything I do is a dead end.”

 

“Dad and Dig can take care of themselves. If their captors want to make themselves known, they will. Keep digging on Luthor.”

 

“I don’t know what else I’m going to find.”

 

“There has to be something.” The trail couldn’t end here. 

 

Don walked in. “Hey.”

 

“Oh, hey. How are you feeling?”

 

“Like I could go for a run. I’m running low on energy bars, though.”

 

“I think I have some more in my bag, so don’t worry.”

 

“Cool.”

 

“Speaking of going for a run, how do you feel about heading over to Mercury Labs?”

 

“Sounds good.”

 

“Mom, could you have Mr. Allen call ahead for us? I’m sure Dr. McGee would see us on late notice if he put in a good word.”

 

“Can do.”

 

Don and I ran to Mercury Labs. Well, he ran and I hung on. Once we were in the lobby, and told security we had an appointment, we were ushered in. Apparently knowing the Flash had its perks. Dr. McGee was waiting for us when we walked into her office.

 

“Ah, you two must be the young scientists Mr. Allen was telling me about.”

 

“Something like that. We’re interested in the chemical LuthorCorp wants to introduce to the water supply.”

 

“Ah, yes. We’ve tried to come out quite forcefully against that, but it seems to be going forward without us.”

 

“What do you know about the chemical?”

 

“It hasn’t been thoroughly tested. I don’t care what it does or doesn’t do for people if it hasn’t gone through rigorous testing.”

 

“Have you tested it here?”

 

“We’ve done a few basic run-throughs, yes. So far, we haven’t found anything alarming. But to suggest that everyone in the country should imbibe it? Preposterous.” 

 

“Can you think of any way to neutralize the chemical?” Don asked.

 

“Why would I want to do that?”

 

“In case Luthor introduces it to the population early.”

 

“Lionel Luthor is a sensible man. Yes, he’s going forward at a rapid pace to obtain a government contract, but who wouldn’t? He wouldn’t set up something like this.”

 

“Can you think of anyone who would want to use Luthor’s chemical in a nefarious way?”

 

“No.”

 

“What about his son, Lex?”

 

“I don’t know of any such person, but I would assume he’s constrained by his father.”

 

Maybe Dr. McGee was right. Maybe the Luthor we should be looking at wasn’t Lex, but Lionel. Just because he wasn’t alive by the time of the Event doesn’t mean he hadn’t caused it several decades earlier. 

 

I nodded at Don, and thanked Dr. McGee for her time, before rushing back to the Bunker.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“What if it’s Lionel, and not Lex?”

 

“What?” my mom asked.

 

“I’m saying that what if I confronted the wrong Luthor? What if evil runs in the family?”

 

“Everything in Kuttler’s data suggests that it’s Lex, not Lionel.”

 

“What if Kuttler’s wrong?”

 

“His data made sense.”

 

“And I’m not making sense now? How would Lex go above his father’s head to bring this to light? It would need Lionel’s approval. What if it got Lionel’s approval because it was Lionel’s idea?”

 

Don supported me. “It makes sense. Lex knew nothing about it, but we know it’s still coming from LuthorCorp.”

 

“So, what, you’re going to march into Lionel’s office and yell at him, too?”

 

“No, I’m not doing anything until I understand the distribution strategy. I’m going in with all the facts. Starting with asking him where my father is.”

 

“Good idea. I need a break, though. I’m going for a walk, in the actual daylight.”

 

Don started walking out of the room. “And I’m grabbing something to eat.”

 

Mom started closing out of her browsers, and I did a few stretches. I could use the break as well. Maybe when Don came back, I’d suggest we join Mom for her walk. Don walked in with the blankest expression on his face. 

 

“Ryder, what’s this?” He held up my blood monitor.

 

“It’s nothing.”

 

“Ryder, what. Is. This?”

 

“I’m going to go ahead and head out now,” Mom said, backing away and heading up the elevator.

 

“Don, I said don’t worry about it.”

 

“Don’t worry? I’m extremely worried. Ryder, are you not immune?”

 

“I’m fine, Don.”

 

“That’s not what I asked. Are you...or are you not...immune?”

 

“I think you can see for yourself.”

 

Don’s face fell. “Oh, Ryder.” Then it morphed into something else, something like...anger. “And you didn’t tell me this why? You let me think you were immune! I thought you had reached your Lethality Point.”

 

“You never even asked. You just assumed I was old enough. I didn’t want you to worry. ”

 

“You didn’t want me to worry?!? Ryder, I’m always going to worry about you! I love you!”

 

“Worrying about me is one thing, knowing I’m going to die is another.” Don’s face was shocked. “Yes, Don, I’m going to die. That’s what that number means. You know it, I know it, and-”

 

“Who else knows?”

 

“What?”

 

He folded his arms. “Who else knows you’re not immune?”

 

“Cisco.”

 

“Just Uncle Cisco?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“So you didn’t tell anyone else because, what? They wouldn’t let you come if you did?”

 

“Think about it, Don.”

 

His face fell further than ever. “Because if you went on this mission, you wouldn't be cured when time reset. You’d still be sick. You’re going to die.” Then he flew into a rage. “If you hadn’t been so stubborn and decided to come, you’d live! Don’t you get it? You’d live!”

 

“The mission was more important! I had to make sure it succeeded!”

 

“Frankie and I could’ve handled it!”

 

We were full on screaming at each other now. “Tell me how well Frankie’s handling it! She couldn’t even get here! You couldn't have done this by yourself!”

 

“Urgh! You’re always doubting me! What? Is it because I’m not John? I’m not the mission partner you’ve always wanted? I have to follow your lead, do what you want, all the time!”

 

“Is that what this is about? Me being the leader?”

 

“No. It’s about you thinking that because you’re the leader you get to make decisions unilaterally. You get to keep secrets for the welfare of others. You get to...to sacrifice yourself when it’s not even necessary. This is about you being who you are, Ryder. Even if it kills you.”

 

“That’s not fair.”

 

“This isn’t about fair, Ryder. This is about facts. You don’t trust me. Maybe you never did.” He sped off. 

 

I was alone.


	28. Chapter 28

I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite memory that I had of Don. Our first date, our first kiss, the first time he told me he loved me, they were all standouts for me. But if I were forced to choose, it would probably be a random weeknight at 2 AM. We had been dating for about a year, and it was getting increasingly clear to both of us how serious we were getting, but we hadn’t really talked about it. 

 

I was tossing and turning and unable to get to sleep. John and I had failed a mission that evening and had let a criminal go. He probably wasn’t a danger to anybody, but I still didn’t like knowing I had failed. I texted Don, to see if he was on duty at Team Flash, so we could FaceTime or something. But as soon as the text was marked sent, Don was in my bedroom. I involuntarily let out a squeal and pulled up the covers. 

 

“Relax, Rye, it’s just me,” he whispered. 

 

“You scared the crap out of me!” I pulled my pillow out from behind me and hit him with it. “A little warning next time!”

 

“Sorry.” He was laughing, but looked contrite enough that I’d let the issue go. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

 

“I could ask you the same question.” He wasn’t wearing his gear, but he was fully dressed, indicating that he had been up to something.   
  


“Uncle Cisco and I were just burning the midnight oil working on some new tracking software.”

 

“You know if you let me help…”

 

“If we let you help, we’d never do anything ourselves.” He gave me a knowing look, and I shrugged. The boys would ask for my help eventually. “Anyway, why aren’t you sleeping?”

 

“I couldn’t sleep. John and I let a robber get away today.”

 

“Oh, man. I’m sorry. But you’ll get him next time.” He didn’t say it like it was a throwaway nicety. He really meant it. He believed in me that much. “Do you want me to sit with you until you fall asleep?”

 

“No. I just wanted someone to talk to, and I thought you might be on duty.”

 

“Alright, we can talk.”

 

“No, you’re working with Cisco. I didn’t mean to distract you.”

 

“It’s a welcome distraction. Trust me, I’d much rather be here, even if it’s breaking the rules.” Ah, yes, the strict “no boys in the bedroom (especially Don)” rule. 

 

“Don’t worry, John’s in here all the time.”

 

Don’s raised his eyebrows. “I would hope John’s presence wouldn’t be cause for concern.”

 

“I would hope your presence wouldn’t be cause for concern. I know you can be a good boy, even if my dad doesn’t.”

 

“I’ll show you a good boy.” He leaned forward to kiss me, and I returned the kiss before pushing him back, albeit reluctantly. 

 

Don gave me a confused look. “As much as I want to, and trust me, I do, that’s not going to help me fall asleep.”

 

“Alright. You said you wanted to talk. What about?”

 

“I’m scared.”

 

Don seemed taken aback. “About the robber?”

 

“No. About us.”

 

“Us?” He grabbed my hands, interlacing our fingers between us. “You have nothing to worry about. I’m not going anywhere.”

 

“I know. And that’s what I’m scared of.”

 

Don looked confused. “You’re scared I won’t leave you?”

 

“I’m scared of where we’re headed. Sometimes, it’s just so….so much, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” Don gave me another confused look. “You’ve seen the future, right?”

 

“Sure, some of it.”

 

“Do you ever see us in it?”

 

Don hesitated. “Once.”

 

“Really?”

 

“We had only been going out a few weeks, so it didn’t seem like the right time to tell you. But I saw a future version of us.”

 

“And we’re together?”

 

“In one version of the future, yeah.”

 

“How do you feel about that?”

 

“I don’t know. It seems like a crazy idea, but at the same time...it makes perfect sense. Us as end game.”

 

“Yeah. If I’ve been distant lately, it’s only because...I’m getting closer to figuring out that my future is you, and that scares me.”

 

He squeezed my hands, still held between us. “What if I promise you it won’t be scary? What you feel for me, or what I feel for you, or what the future may hold...that we’ll get through it together?”

 

“Then maybe I’d be a little less scared.”

 

“Only a little?”

 

“Maybe a bit more than a little…” He tackled me so that I was laying down and he was on top of me. “Okay, maybe a lot.”

 

He kissed my nose. “Good. I love you.” 

 

“I love you, too. So much.” Then he rolled off of me so that we were both laying on our sides, facing each other. It didn’t take much longer for me to fall asleep.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mom found me curled up against one of the computer desks, softly crying. She wrapped her arms around me tight, stroking my hair, and asked me what was wrong.   
  


“I think we broke up,” I whispered.

 

“Oh, sweetie.” 

 

And she held me like that while my world fell apart.


	29. Chapter 29

I knew I couldn’t sit around feeling sorry for myself for very long. There was a world to save, and I was the one supposedly in charge of saving it. So even though my father and  his best friend were MIA, my boyfriend wasn’t going to be of much use, and I had nothing remotely resembling a lead, I had to go forward. Somehow. 

 

“Sweetie, what happened?”

 

“It doesn’t matter.” I stood up. “We have a criminal to stop.”

 

Mom stood up as well. “You’re not going to be of any use if you keep bottling up what’s going on. If you get it out, you’ll be more effective going forward. I’ve learned that from Oliver.”

 

“Ha. Like Dad’s the poster child for expressing emotion.”

 

“Well, I learned what  _ not _ to do from him. Just talk to me, Ryder.”

 

“I was keeping a big secret from Don.”

 

“The location of his sister?”

 

“No. Something bigger. Pretty much the biggest thing you can keep from someone.”

 

“And he didn’t take it very well?”

 

“You couldn’t hear us shouting a block away? He made it pretty clear that we’re done.”

 

“And how does that make you feel?”

 

“How do you  _ think _ that makes me feel? I’m devastated, Mom. But I still have the same cause, that hasn’t changed.”

 

“Do you think it’s changed for Don?”

 

“No, he understands the mission. He probably just went to STAR Labs. I trust him.”

 

“If you trusted him, why did you keep this supposedly big secret from him?”  _ Exactly like Don said _ . 

 

“Because it wasn’t relevant to the mission.” I sighed. “Since the Event, I’ve had to streamline my life. Ignore anything besides the mission. I’ve compartmentalized who knows what in my life, to keep things simple.”

 

“That doesn’t sound simple. It sounds like a lot of work.”

 

“You just don’t understand. You haven’t lived in the post-Event world.”

 

“Maybe the version of me hasn’t, but there’s a version of me that has. What do I, I mean me in the future, think about your secrets?”

 

That was a more complicated question than she could possibly imagine. How many times had I asked myself if my mom would approve of what I was doing? How much had I wished to talk to her one last time to ask her if I was doing the right thing? And now I had as close of a chance as I was ever going to get, and she was asking me questions like this. 

 

“You don’t know my secrets in the future.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“No one does. That’s why they’re secrets.”

 

“I just think it doesn’t do anyone any good to keep secrets from the people they love. Even if it’s hard. Especially if it’s hard.”

 

“Does this conclude our emotion sharing time? I want to check CCTV feeds from the surrounding areas of the water treatment plant.”

 

She gestured to the computers. “Yeah, go ahead.”

 

Of course, CCTV of the surrounding area was dead before, during, and after the abduction. These guys really had left no trace. Just like our research on Luthor, the trail had gone cold. 

 

Cold. 

 

“Mom, pull up everything you have on NuCorp.”

 

“The energy company?”

 

“Yeah.” I started rifling through the papers on patents that LuthorCorp had. The patents for NuCorp weren’t in here. “And get me all of NuCorp’s recent patents.”

 

Once the patent list was printed out, I scanned it until I found what I was looking for. NuCorp had invented a gadget that went onto sinks. It turned tap water even colder, so that it was practically ice cold. It was a consumer device, and would be the perfect way to change the composition of the drinking supply.

 

“Here it is! This invention would allow LP to be widespread.”

 

Mom grabbed the paper from me. “This patent was only filed this year. It could take years before the device is on the market.”

 

“Well, NuCorp has years. And once the chemical was in the public drinking supply, it wouldn’t be filtered out. The chemical is considered non-hazardous. It would keep being cycled in, until everyone had it in them.”

 

“But then why even try dumping it into the water supply?”

 

“As a test run. See what happens, then mass market it with a higher dosage beyond Star and Central City.”

 

“Okay, so we need to confront NuCorp.”

 

“No, we need to confront Lionel Luthor.”

 

“LuthorCorp isn’t related to NuCorp.”

 

“According to Mrs. West-Allen, they’re a company that lobbied the government for LuthorCorp’s chemical enhancements. They are a LuthorCorp subsidy, but somehow Luthor’s keeping that from being public knowledge. Probably so if this NuCorp thing goes south, he’s far away from the blame.”

 

“So you’re saying Luthorcorp has a separate branch whose main goal is to poison the water supply?”

 

“Yes. The Contamination Unit.”

 

“But why?”

 

“That’s what I’m going to find out.”

 

“You’re going to confront Lionel?”

 

“Not until I’m sure we have the neutralizing chemical perfected. I’m not going in unless I know how I’m getting out.”

 

“But what about Oliver and Dig?”

 

“Luthor has them. I just know it. I trust them to take care of themselves. I want to run a full chemical analysis on what’s in this coolant to make sure raw LP is in there.”

 

“I can help with that!”

 

“I know. Let’s get started.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“You can’t be on the track team.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“You’re literally the fastest girl alive. That puts 4 billion other women at an unfair disadvantage.”

 

“But Zach Prescott is on the track team, and this way we’d get to spend more time together!”

 

“Excuse me?” Frankie was not presenting the best argument to her father.

 

“I mean, I’d have the opportunity to get to know him and see if he’s worthy of me.”

 

“Dax Preston or not, you’re not joining the team. If you want to get more running in, the speed lab is always open to you.”

 

I barely looked up from my magazine. This was a typical day at the Allen household, with two angsty sixteen year olds living in it. Well, one was angsty and one was just kind of...there, staring at me a lot. I had learned to ignore Don by this point, but Frankie’s outbursts could not be ignored.

 

“I don’t want to run around training all day, I want to impress a boy. Didn’t you do all sorts of stuff when you were in high school to impress Mom?” I had to laugh. Grandpa Joe had told even me those stories: trying out for the football team (and becoming the waterboy), entering the state science fair (and being disqualified for having too advanced a project), and punching a boy for trying to kiss Iris (she wanted the boy to). 

 

“Yes, I might have pulled some stunts to get your mother to notice me, but none of them worked. Moral of the story being if you want someone to notice you, let them notice you for who you are.”

 

“Oh, so I should tell him my secret identity?”

 

“No, just let him get to know who you are on the inside.”

 

“Easy for you to say,” she murmured before Mr. Allen’s watch beeped and he flashed out of there. Frankie turned to me. “You’re good at forging signatures, right?”

 

“Oh, no. I’m not signing your track permission slip.”

 

“Why not?” she whined.

 

“Because your parents are going to notice you’ve joined the team. There’s practices, and meets, and a whole new set of clothes. Plus, your dad is right. It would be unfair for you to join.”

 

“I could moderate my speed. Just be like, the second-fastest girl. Or maybe the fastest, but only by a little. Please, Ryder?” She tried to hand me the permission slip. I exchanged glances with Don, and he just rolled his eyes. 

 

“No. If you’re looking for something to do, try spending more time at STAR Labs. You know they would love to have you around more.”

 

“Or at all,” Don offered. 

 

This time it was Frankie’s turn to roll her eyes. “Uncle Cisco always wants to run experiments on me and how fast I run. He can’t accept that the two of us run at different speeds.”

 

“That’s because you’re never around long enough for him to get a proper measurement.”

 

Frankie slumped down on the couch. “It’s not fair. I don’t get to do anything fun all because of powers I never asked for.”

 

Don looked at her in disbelief. “But you love your powers! How many times have you told me how great it is to get up one minute before the tardy bell rings?”

 

“Well, right now, they’re making my life suck! All the boys at school think I’m a loser because I’m always out with my family, everyone thinks I’m the stupid twin because my brother is bound for medical school, and I don’t have a life!”

 

I had known Frankie had been feeling this way for a while, but I don’t think Don had. I knew he loved his powers and felt a deep sense of duty, like the rest of us did. Frankie was never like that. She only did what was required of her on the hero front, and tried to live a normal life outside of that. This seemed like it was coming close to the final straw, though.

 

“Don, could you give us a second?”

 

“Sure.” He sped out.

 

“Frankie, the sooner you let go of this idea that our lives are going to be normal, the better.”

 

“How can you say that? You could’ve had a normal life, and you threw it away. You’re athletic, pretty, and smart. You could’ve had it all. But all you want is to run away from all of that.”

 

“I’m not running away, I’m running toward. I’m running toward a life that helps people.”

 

“And I can’t help people if I’m just a normal person?”

 

“The impact you have as a speedster is leaps and bounds the impact you could have as a normal person.”

 

“I just want to be a normal high school student first, like John was. He says that it’s not selfish to want that.”

 

“You’ve been talking to John?”

 

“What? I can’t talk to your BFF?”

 

“Not what I meant. I just didn’t know you two talked.”

 

“Just part of me accepting the inevitable, I guess. In the future, we’ll be on the same team.”

 

“Yeah. I’m not saying you have to become a hero right this second, but you do have to accept that your life is never going to be normal. But I’m here for you.” I opened my arms up for a hug, which she reciprocated.

 

“Thanks, Ryder. I’ll be ready someday. Just not now.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

_ Oh, Frankie _ . She was the last one of us to deserve being trapped in the Speed Force. She never wanted any of this. I heard a ping, and looked up.

 

“Analysis is done.” Mom looked satisfied.

 

“And?”

 

“There’s definitely raw LP in the NuCorp coolant system.”

 

We were this much closer to having them right where we wanted them.


	30. Chapter 30

The only thing we needed was for STAR Labs to have a neutralization for that chemical. Since there was no way for me to physically go and check on them, I called them up. 

 

“What is it, Ms. Smoak?” That was a Wells talking. 

 

“This is Anna.”

 

“Ah, Ms. Smoak’s daughter.”

 

“What?”

 

“Don’t worry, no one told me anything.” Great. Someone else just piecing it together.

 

“How are you guys coming on the chemical?”

 

“It’s close, but we need more time.”

 

“How much more?”

 

“Aren’t we in a rush?”

 

“I have to be out of this time period by tomorrow evening, so sorry if I’m not giving you much time.”

 

“I’m to assume we’ll be facing new challenges tomorrow evening, then?”

 

“You’re to assume nothing. How soon can you have the chemical done?”

 

“If we work through the night, it’ll be done by morning.”

 

“Thank you, Dr. Wells. Hey, is, uh, Don there?”

 

“No, I haven’t seen him since the last time he was here with you.”

 

“Okay. Good luck.”

 

I glanced at the time. It was already night. Today had gone by much faster than I would have wanted it to. No wonder I was so tired. 

 

I turned to Mom. “You might as well go home. There’s nothing else we can do here.”

 

“Are you sure? You don’t want me to stay with you?”

 

“I mean, I can’t make you leave, but there’s no reason for you to stay.”

 

“Making sure you’re okay isn’t a good enough reason?”

 

I didn’t think I’d be able to handle it if she did. “No, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

“Alright. Goodnight.”

 

I sorted through the drawers until I found some protein bars and water, then sat back to try and find Don. I tried pinging him from my tablet, but he had turned his GPS off. Where would he go? Don wasn’t the one who went for runs when he was agitated; that was Frankie. Don would usually hole up somewhere, find someone to talk to. That’s why I was surprised he wasn’t at STAR Labs. Still, there had to be some way to track him. I tried tracking Gideon, but she was hard to find when she didn’t want to be found. That AI really had a mind of her own. 

 

I leaned back in my chair, exhausted. I knew this mission would drain me physically and emotionally, but having people find out things they shouldn’t had somehow made it even worse. And, of course, I wasn’t expecting Team Flashback to fall apart like this. I only had a few days left before I died; I had hoped they would be good, or at least better than this.  _ But it’ll all be worth it if you save them _ . I gave up on finding Don, knowing he would be alright, and went back to lay on my cot and get some rest.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was in the Bunker with Dad and some other members of the team, waiting for Curtis and Mom to find some arms dealer. No one tells you that vigilante work ends up being a lot of waiting around. I was about eleven, so Tommy was about four. He was getting better at occupying himself with his toys and games, and his colorful tablet that I had loaded with educational games. That meant I had more time to spar with Dad during down times. Today, we were working on projectiles. 

 

“There’s always going to be something around that you can use as a weapon, it’s just a matter of knowing how,” he would say. Today, it was knives. Specifically, unweighted kitchen knives. I struggled a bit at first getting used to each individual knife’s weight and balance. They each had their advantages. Flat knives were easier to throw, while serrated knives were dangerous in close combat. When Mom wasn’t looking, Dad would show me the best places to stab your opponent. I took it all in. 

 

After I was able to get a bullseye almost every time with a flat knife, Dad said that was enough for the day.

 

“No it’s not! I still don’t have 100% accuracy yet.”

 

“You know why I’m teaching you to throw knives, right?”

 

“To defend myself. Because what our family does is dangerous.”

 

“Right. But I don’t want you to think you’re ready for the big time.”

 

“Of course not, Dad. I’m in sixth grade.”

 

“Exactly. Being a hero, that’s for adults.”

 

“I get it. But someday I’m going to be just like you, right?”

 

Dad hesitated. “Maybe, maybe not.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t want me to be on the team?”

 

“I do, but maybe more like your mom. You’re good with computers.”

 

“Yeah, but I could be  _ great _ with a bow and arrow. You’ll see.”

 

“I’m not sure, Ryder. I’m not sure this is your calling.” I felt like I had been punched in the gut. Not my calling? Of course it was! I was the daughter of Oliver and Felicity Queen for crying out loud! This was my birthright! “Just try and stay out of trouble for now, okay?”

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

I promised myself that day that I would be a hero. No obstacle would get in my way, not even my own father. After the assassin attacked us and Mom got sick, there were no obstacles in my way. My future was laid out for me.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

I awoke to the comms dinging. I jumped out of bed and ran to go answer whoever it was. 

 

“Hello?”

 

“Hey, Anna, it’s Barry. We have a way to neutralize the raw chemical. I’m running it over.” In a flash, he was in front of me, holding a vial.

 

“Thanks, Mr. Allen.”

 

“I do have a question, though. That boy you’re with, Don….will Iris and I know him in the future?”

 

“Yeah, you do.”

 

“Good luck with whatever you’re trying to do.” He sped away before I could thank him again.

 

Mom would probably be here soon, and then I could go after Lionel Luthor, with all the proof I needed of the conspiracy. Should I go in as Anna, or as Maverick? Both of them had their advantages, but I ultimately decided to strike as much fear into the heart of Lionel Luthor as I could. 

 

Mom came in as I was suiting up. “Are you going out?”

 

“Mr. Allen got me the neutralization chemical. That means I’ll be able to undo whatever he’s up to. Can you have the rest of the team go out to the water treatment center that Dad and Dig were at?” I handed her the chemical. “Give them this, and tell them that if anything gets dumped in the water, they need to dump this in immediately. And leak everything we have to the press. ”

 

“Got it.”

 

I hacked Lionel’s schedule and saw that he was at his Star City subsidiary today. Perfect. 

 

Mom looked worried. “Are you sure you’re okay going in alone?”

 

“Always am.”


	31. Chapter 31

The ride to the LuthorCorp building was long enough for me to think of what I was going to say to Luthor. He would no doubt connect me with the threat I made against his son yesterday. It was no matter, I would be in and out before he knew it. I was able to hack my way through the back service door and onto another service elevator. This was just too easy. Once on the executive floor, I looked around for Luthor’s office.

 

“Overwatch, are you getting anything from thermal?”

 

“Luthor is alone in his office.”

 

“Perfect.” I kicked down the door, just like I had for his son, and came in with my arrow nocked. I wasn’t going to let him out of my sight. He was currently facing away from me, peering through the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. I turned on my voice modulator.

 

“Lionel Luthor, you have failed this city.”

 

He spun to face me. “Call me mistaken, but I thought Star City was famous for its _green-_ hooded vigilante.”

 

“Shut down NuCorp’s water coolant project.”

 

“And why should I do that?”

 

“Stop playing games, Luthor. We know of your plan to poison the country.”

 

Luthor mockingly faked confusion. “And why would I, one of the world’s leading philanthropists, be interested in killing anyone?”

 

“That doesn’t concern me. Shut it down, or I’ll put an arrow through your heart.”

 

“It seems like you’re the only one in this room who’s interested in killing anyone. Put down your bow, and we’ll talk about this like gentlemen.”

 

I only held my bow tighter. “Shut. It. Down.”

 

“Don’t say I didn’t give you a sporting chance.” He typed a single key on his keyboard and turned his monitor around to face me. My heart dropped.

 

Dad and Dig were sitting tied up in some room, facing the camera. Luthor’s threat was clear. 

 

“Now, I wouldn’t want to hurt your comrades.”

 

“I don’t know them.”

 

“Oh, come now. You think someone comes into my son’s office sporting vague nonsense about him poisoning people, and then I catch two intruders at a water treatment plant the very same day, and I’m not going to know the two are connected?”  _ That’s why he took them _ . “And now another bow-and-arrow wielding vigilante breaks in here and claims not to know the Green Arrow? Most people consider me a genius, but I don’t need to be to figure this out.”

 

I held my bow steady. My threat couldn’t be compromised just because he had two hostages. Two hostages that I loved very much.  _ Shake it off, Ryder. What would Dad, real Dad, want you to do?  _ I knew the answer.

 

Whatever it took.

 

I shot an arrow into Luthor’s shoulder. He barely even reacted, except for a grimace. “You think this is a game? Next one goes through your heart.”

 

“Oh, I wish you hadn’t done that.” Another few strokes on the keyboard. I wished the monitor in horror as Dad and Dig were both delivered an electric shock. It looked like Dad was yelling something into the camera, but the feed didn’t have any audio. “Now, if you leave peacefully, I’ll let your friends go. We can forget all of this ever happened.”

 

“And let you poison the city? Not likely.”

 

“Well, then, it appears as if we are at something of an impasse. If you shoot me, your friends die. If you leave, you’re of the belief that I’m going to poison the city. Life is full of choices.”

 

There was no such thing as an impasse in the game I played. There was always a way out. I just had to be clever enough to find it. If I could think of why Luthor was poisoning the city, then maybe I could talk him out of it. Lex Luthor was all about profit, always had been. His father was probably much the same. But how could one profit out of killing half the country? He wasn’t in the funeral industry. What if he wasn’t profiting off of their deaths? He was profiting off of the poisoning? Infect half the country and then offer them the cure. They wouldn’t die, but he’d turn a tidy profit.

 

That meant Luthor had the cure.

 

“Hand over the cure.”

 

“Ah, so you figured it out. Clever girl.”

 

“Hand it over or die.”

 

“If you kill me, there is no way to get the cure, is there?”

 

“Overwatch, Luthor has a cure to LP. Find it. And fast.”

 

“Copy.” Mom said. 

 

While I had been speaking to Mom, Luthor had delivered another shock to Dad and Dig. Now they were both yelling something into the camera that I couldn’t make out. “I will kill them.”

 

“Go ahead. I’m getting the cure from you one way or another.”

 

“Found it!” Mom said excitedly. 

 

“It’s over, Luthor. I have the cure. You can’t profit off of something when you don’t have exclusivity. Business 101.”

 

Luthor frowned slightly. “You’re bluffing.”

 

“Try me. You go through with your plan, not only can I cure the whole population for free, I can trace everything back to you. I’ll destroy you.”

 

Luthor stroked a few more keys. “Fine. Then I’ll kill him.”

 

Don.

 

How had he gotten hold of Don? Even with meta dampeners, Don wasn’t dumb enough to get himself kidnapped, right? I started into Don’s eyes. There was no fear in them at all. We were both willing to die on this mission. I didn’t want to sacrifice Don, but I would if I had to. That was the game we were playing.

 

“Go ahead. I’m not leaving until you’ve shut NuCorp down.”

 

“My men are already at the water treatment facility in Central City. It’s too late.”

 

“Overwatch?”

 

“The team is fighting Luthor’s goons. They have the neutralizer.”

 

I addressed Luthor. “My team is already at the plant to stop them. And I’ve leaked everything to the press. You lose, Luthor.”

 

There was a slight twitch in Luthor’s calm disposition. I broke him. “Fine! Then your friends will die!”

 

“You’re not a murderer, Luthor. You’re just not.”

 

“We’ll see about that.” He reached for the keyboard, but as he was pressing the keys, I launched myself across his desk and knocked him out cold. I looked at the monitor, and saw that Dad, Dig, and Don were being hit with electric currents again. Finally, they all slumped over. Were they…?

 

I whipped out my tablet and traced the feed, trying to see if I could pinpoint where it was coming from. There was no time to waste. The camera was broadcasting from a warehouse outside the city, so I started running toward the elevator and out to the Ducati.

 

I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was Day 0. We didn’t call it that until much later, but there seemed to be no other way to refer to the day of the Event. Dad was driving Mom, Tommy, and I to a restaurant. Mom had officially been in remission for a year, and even though she could probably be in her chair for the rest of her life, we all counted it as a win. Tommy and I were each on our phones, texting with our friends, and Mom and Dad were singing along to the radio up front. It was some cheesy 90s ballad, but they loved it. We were on the highway, going who knows how fast (Dad always had a need for speed) when it happened. I just happened to be looking up at the time, since Mom and Dad were singing the bridge extra loud. 

 

I remember everything like it was in slow motion. Mom stopped singing and her head slumped forward. It was like she was a robot that had suddenly been turned off. Dad noticed she had stopped singing, and turned to look at her. Dad slowed down the car, but the car behind us slammed into the back passenger side, throwing me into the front seat and Tommy’s head against the front passenger seat, knocking him out. Dad slammed on the brakes and turned around. His face was pure panic.

 

“Tommy? Ryder?”

 

“I’m fine but Tommy’s out cold.” I gathered him to me, and checked his pulse. “He’s fine, just unconscious. Mom?”

 

Dad was shaking as he put his fingers to Mom’s neck. He went white as a ghost. He didn’t say anything, just got out of the car and around to Mom’s side. He grabbed her out of the car and laid her down on the pavement, and began CPR. As I began paying attention to my surroundings, I began hearing the sound of screams and crashes. I got out of the car and looked around. Almost every car on the road had been in some sort of accident. There was smoke and fires everywhere. I whipped out my phone to call 911, but the line was busy. I didn’t even realized such a thing was possible. I turned to look at Dad. He was kneeling over Mom, his hands covering his face.  _ No _ . This couldn’t be happening. 

 

Tommy was coming to in the car, so I went back inside to hold him and tell him everything would be alright. That was the first time I ever lied to Tommy.

 

Mom’s memorial service was a brief affair. Dad didn’t come. He was too busy hitting the streets. My desire to be there for Tommy outweighed my passion for beating criminals into submission. Afterwards, Tommy was so exhausted that he needed to lay down. I let him be and attended John’s memorial service by myself. I sat with Dig, like I was family. Aunt Lyla would’ve had to have been at ARGUS, trying desperately to figure something, anything, out. John wasn’t military, but his service could make you believe that he was. There was a silent reverence to it. Dig didn’t shed a single tear. I guess it was his way of being strong for his boy.

 

When I got back home, after checking on a sleeping Tommy, I went to my room to change into something more comfortable. Don was already there.

 

“How was your dad’s service?” I asked him.

 

“I think he would’ve liked it. And your mom’s?”

 

“I doubt she would’ve liked it very much, but it happened.”

 

“No sign of your dad?”

 

“Nope. He’ll come back eventually, I guess.”

 

“You don’t sound so sure.”

 

“How’s Frankie?”

 

If he was taken aback by the abrupt change in subject, he didn’t show it. “She’s running. I tried catching up to her, but I couldn’t. She’ll stop eventually.”

 

“And your mom?”

 

“She’s already helping Cisco try and figure out what happened. She thinks that’s what Dad would’ve wanted.”

 

“What do you think?”

 

He slumped over. “I don’t know, Rye. I don’t think I know anything anymore.”

 

“I know the feeling. Sometimes I feel like all I have left is you, Frankie, and Tommy.”

 

“Well, we’re family.”

 

“I just miss her so much already.”

 

“I know. I miss Dad too.”

 

“Can you take me to STAR Labs?”

 

“Why?”

 

“I want to help Cisco and your mom. I need to do...something.”

 

“Yeah. Let’s run.”

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

My mind came back to the present. I couldn’t let it happen again. I wouldn’t. The whole reason I came on this mission was to put my family back together. To have them torn apart again by Luthor was unthinkable.


	32. Chapter 32

I burst into the warehouse and started running from room to room, searching for the hostages. Finally, in the last possible room, I found Dad and Dig. They were both still unconscious. I started tapping my dad’s face, trying to get him to respond to me, and he finally started coming to. I did the same for Dig until he came to as well. 

 

“Ryder?” my dad asked groggily. 

 

I went over to him. “Yeah, Dad, it’s me. I’m here.”

 

“You shouldn’t have come.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“It’s a…”

 

But before he could finish his sentence, I was surrounded by six armed men. This was going to be fun. 

 

They immediately began shooting. I dropped down to the floor, as two of them managed to shoot each other.  _ Two down, four to go. _ I aimed an arrow at the light fixture on the ceiling and we were plunged into darkness. The idiots kept firing their guns. I felt a bullet graze my shoulder. I estimated where the shot would’ve had to come from, and shot in an arrow in that direction. I heard the man collapse.  _ Three to go. _

 

The men finally stopped firing their guns, leaving me unsure of the position of the last three men. I grabbed a flare arrow (Cisco called it a flarrow) and shot it at the wall. The room lit up for a brief second, allowing me to get the positions of the three men. I was able to take one out before he moved his position too much. Then I heard soft grunting, like someone had run into something. I locked onto his position, and took him out as well.  _ One to go _ . 

 

I heard a thunk and turned toward it. I attacked the person.

 

“Ryder-it’s me.” Dad said.

 

“Oh, sorry.” Dad had somehow taken out the last guy. I pulled out my tablet and turned on its flashlight. Dad had a red mark on his head. Guess he head-butted him. I helped Dad get untied and then did Dig.

 

“Have you guys seen Don?”

 

“No. Why? Is he captive, too?” my dad asked.

 

“Yeah. The feed was coming from here, though, from both cameras.”

 

“We’ll help you find him.”

 

“Overwatch?”

 

“What’s up, Anna?”

 

“I have Green Arrow and Spartan, but I can’t find Don anywhere. He turned off his GPS so I can’t trace him.”

 

“Or Luthor turned it off, like he did for Green Arrow and Spartan.” Right. 

 

“I’m sending you the information on a camera feed that Luthor was running from Don’s location. See if you can backtrace it better than I could?”

 

“On it.”

 

“How’s the team doing?”

 

“Luthor managed to get the chemical in the water, but they dumped in the neutralizer. We’re safe.” I breathed out a sigh of relief.

 

“Good. Over and out.”

 

I turned back to Dad and Dig. “Can we search this warehouse again? See if there’s anything I missed?”

 

We split up and went to search the warehouse. I got nothing again. 

 

“Ryder?” my mom said.

 

“Copy.”

 

“The signal is definitely coming from that warehouse. I hacked into it and Don’s still there. You must be missing something.”

 

“Pull up the specs on the warehouse and send them to me. I need to be sure I’m not missing anything.”

 

Dig’s voice came over the comms. “I’ve checked the roof. Nothing up here.”

 

Dad affirmed that the second floor was all clear. 

 

My tablet pinged and I saw that Mom had sent over the specs. I looked them over. Nothing to indicate that we had missed anything, except a small boiler room in the basement. But I hadn’t seen any doors or indication that there was a way down there. I stood over where the supposed room would be. If there wasn’t a way down there, I would make one. 

 

I took out an explosive arrow, backed up, and fired it at the ground. It blew a hole in the floor. I lowered myself through the hole and then dropped myself to the ground. The only light came from a single bulb. There were heaters and ducts everywhere, but eventually I found a small space where Don was sitting across from a camera and a meta dampener.

 

I put my fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse. He was alive. I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. I shook him and called out his name until he came to.

 

“Ryder?”

 

“Hey, champ. How’s it going?”

 

“Ryder, don’t, it’s a trap!”

 

“Don’t worry, I already tripped the wire. It’s fine.” I paused, and then realized I should say what I wanted to say before things got complicated again. “Don, I’m so sorry. I never should’ve kept that secret from you. I just wanted to make sure you were safe, and that meant coming on this mission.”

 

“Let’s go home.” It wasn’t the forgiveness I sought, but it would do for now.

 

“Sounds perfect.”


	33. Chapter 33

I radioed in to Dad and Dig and we met up outside. Dad looked relieved that Don was okay. Good to know he cared. We found the van parked outside and I was able to hotwire it to give us a ride back home. 

 

Mom gave Dad a giant hug when he came back, and I almost had to look away it was so intimate. We had met our deadline. Team Flash was probably had HR’s funeral right now, and Mr. Allen would be taken into the Speed Force tonight. Prometheus would break out of jail tonight during Dad’s surprise birthday party. Everything was on schedule. All that was left was to wrap everything up. 

 

I noticed that the rest of the team was there, too. I turned to address them. “Thank you for everything you’ve done these past few days. I know it hasn’t been easy, but we made a difference. In fact…”

 

I turned to Don. “Gideon?”

 

“Yes, Anna?”

 

“Timeline diagnostic on the Event.”

 

“The Event no longer happens, as the government halts the production of the NuCorp water coolant system.” This might of been the best sentence I had ever heard in my entire life. The team started clapping, and I tried not breaking down from the sheer joy of it.

 

“Thank you guys.” Dad addressed his team. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” They all headed out. Dad winked at Dig as Dig left. 

 

“Anna?” Gideon addressed me. 

 

“Yes?”

 

“Now that the cure has been discovered, don’t you need to take it?”

 

Mom and Dad turned to me, surprised looks on their faces. Don just kept looking down. 

 

“Ryder, are you sick?” Dad asked.

 

“Sort of,” I admitted. I dug through my bag and came out with my chemical synthesizer. I plugged in my tablet and uploaded the cure. It took only a few moments to synthesize the simple organic chemical. “Do you have a syringe?” I asked Mom.

 

“Um, sure.” She dug around until she produced one. I loaded the chemical and shot myself up with it. Then I took out my blood monitor and stuck myself. 0%.

 

“And now I’m fine.” Boy, that felt anticlimactic. It seemed so easy, that Luthor had it this whole time. 

 

“So are you heading back to the future now?” Mom asked. 

 

I turned to Don. “Yeah, it seems that way. Our work here is done.”

 

Mom came up to me and hugged me. “I’m going to miss you.”

 

“You’ll see me again soon. We’re teammates, after all.”

 

She whispered in my ear, “Be safe, okay?” I nodded. I then turned to Dad, who was tearing up.

 

“I don’t want you to go.”

 

“We both know I can’t stay. I have a brave new world to go face. And you’re going to be in it. I’m bringing you both back, like I promised.” Dad furrowed his brow at my words, ones he clearly couldn’t understand. I stepped up to him and gave him a hug. 

 

“Tell Tommy I say hi.”

 

I smiled. “You can tell him yourself.” 

 

“I love you, sweetheart.”  _ Wow, okay. _

 

“I love you, too, Dad.” I pulled back before I got too emotional. I turned to Don. “You ready?”

 

He nodded. We each grabbed our bags and hoisted them on our backs. He wrapped his arm around my waist and off we ran. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------

 

Things started turning hazy, and soon I found myself in STAR Labs. 

 

“Don?” I called out. This didn’t make sense. There was no way I could arrive here without Don accompanying me. I started running through the empty halls, looking for him. I finally found him looking over his sleeping sister. So we were in the Speed Force.

 

Mr. Allen, or rather, the Speed Force, came walking in. “So you did it anyway.”

 

Don looked up from his sister to see his father. “I had to.”

 

“I told you that no good would come of changing the timeline. And no good has.”

 

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

 

“There always has to be a speedster in my prison. Those are the rules.” I quickly went through my recollection: Savitar, then Wally, then Jay, then Barry, then Barry’s fake replacement. We had never left the prison empty. Doing so would be a disaster.

 

“My dad, my real dad, is in the prison,” Don argued.

 

“You think I would be fooled by that cube? No. I need a real speedster. And I choose her.” He gestured at Frankie.

 

“No! You can’t have her!” Don cried out. “Take me instead!”

 

“Are you certain?” the Speed Force asked.

 

“Don, no!” I cried out. 

 

He turned to me. “I have to do this. I can’t leave her trapped her, I just can’t.”

 

I could see in his eyes that his mind was made up. I couldn’t ask him not to save his sister. I knew I would do whatever it took to save my brother. But I couldn’t let him go without reminding him of one thing. “I love you.”

 

Don looked away from me for a moment, saying nothing, before turning to the Speed Force and nodding.

 

“Very well,” the Speed Force said. 

 

Don collapsed just as Frankie woke up. The Speed Force turned to me. “Go.” 

 

I grabbed Frankie and closed my eyes as STAR Labs faded around me.

 

\----------------------------------------------------

 

When I opened my eyes, I was in the exact same place in STAR Labs. But everything was sharper, crisper. And Don was gone. This was the real world. 

 

I nudged Frankie. “Are you alright?” 

 

She came to. “Yeah. What’s happening? Where are we?”

 

“You missed it, but the mission succeeded. We’re back home now.”

 

“Where’s Don?”

 

I waited until she was comfortably sitting until I explained everything to her. By the end of it, she was in tears.

 

“Why did you let him do it? Ryder, why would you let him do it?!?” I held Frankie as she cried. After a while, she calmed down. 

 

“It should’ve been me. I never wanted any of this. I’d make a good prisoner.”

 

“Frankie, don’t say that. Don wanted you to have a life. And now you can. Now you have to.”

 

She took a deep breath. “And now I will.”

 

“Let’s go find the rest of the team.”

 

We walked into the Cortex, to find Mrs. West-Allen and her husband sitting there with Cisco and Grandpa Joe, like it was just a normal day.   
  


“Dad?” 

 

Mr. Allen turned toward her. “Oh, hey, Frankie.”

 

She launched herself into his arms to give him the biggest hug. “Dad!”

 

Mr. Allen chuckled. “What’s this all about?”

 

“Nothing. I’m just happy to see you.”

 

“Have you seen your brother around?” Mrs. West-Allen asked.

 

“Um, not today.” Frankie took a deep breath. “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you.”

 

I gave her family some privacy, and headed out into the hallway. I decided I might as well take the train back to Star City, so the family could have some time to grieve. I changed into my civilian clothes and then headed to the train station. It wasn’t too hard to sneak on without money for a fare, and I sat in the back, finally giving myself time to grieve as well. 

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

Luckily, the Bunker wasn’t far from the station, so I managed to walk there without a problem. When I got down there, I found Dad, Curtis, and Mom. She looked exactly like in my dreams. Even though this was an amazing moment, it didn’t do too much to drown out the pain I was feeling. 

 

“Hey, Ryder,” Mom said calmly, like it was any other day.

 

I had no idea what was happening in this timeline, but I asked anywhere. “Hey, where’s John?”

 

Everyone looked at me sharply. “Sweetheart, what are you talking about?” Dad asked. 

 

“John Diggle Jr.” I was met with more blank faces. Maybe he went by a different name? “Connor Hawke. Where is he?”

 

Dad walked up to me, bent down, and whispered in my ear, “If you think this is some kind of joke, Ryder, it’s not funny. Go clear your head.”

 

“Fine, I’ll be on patrol.”

 

“You’ll be on what now?” Apparently he didn’t like that answer.

 

“I’m going on patrol. It’s dark enough now.”

 

Mom must’ve heard me. “Honey, you don’t go out on patrols. Leave that to our vigilantes.”

 

What was she talking about? “I am a vigilante, Mom.”

 

Dad gave me a pitying look. “I thought you had gotten over this. It’s too dangerous.”

 

“But I’m-” There was something about this timeline. “Okay, I’m out of here.”

 

I walked out of the Bunker into the evening. Something was clearly up. I pulled out my tablet and pinged John’s phone. Nothing. I tried again. Did he not have a cell phone in this timeline? Finally, I just looked him up online.  _ No _ . This wasn’t happening. I had changed the timeline! I had saved him from the Event! I had made sure that all of my loved ones would be safe. But now, Don was gone, without us ever having forgiven each other, Frankie was a distraught hero, I wasn’t a vigilante, and-

 

John was dead.

 

What kind of world had I Traveled back to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's the end of this story. I'm considering writing a companion fic to this, as well as a sequel. Are either of those fics something you'd be interested in? What would you want to see in those fics? Let me know!


End file.
